The Arizona Diamondbacks travel to Dodger Stadium to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in a crucial four game series between division rivals.
As of 8/28/18, the Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies lead the National League West with their 72-60 record. Breathing behind their necks are the Los Angeles Dodgers who at 71-61 are just one game behind them in the team standings. With the leaderboard that close, each game in this four game set is very important.
Heading to this series, Los Angeles has won four out of their last five games while the Diamondbacks have lost four out of five.
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo decided to juggle his rotation early this month and that saw the Diamondbacks alternate left handed starters with right handers. The move saw Robbie Ray get seven days rest before his last start against Seattle last Saturday. Left hander Ray returns on Thursday when he opens on top of the mound against the Dodgers.The 26 year old Brentwood , Tennessee native has started a total of 17 games this season and has compiled a record of 3-2 with an ERA of 4.73 and a WHIP of 1.46.
Ray’s last start was during the Diamondbacks’ 3-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners last Saturday. He pitched a total of five innings while allowing one earned run on five hits and four walks with seven strikeouts. He struggled finding the strike zone as only 54 out of his 104 pitches were strikes. Ray did not factor in the decision for the seventh consecutive start. This is Ray’s first start against the Dodgers this year. Last season, he went 3-0 in five starts against them while posting an ERA of 2.27.
Paul Goldschmidt is 6-15 against Rich Hill with one home run while A.J. Pollock is 3-15 against Hill with all three of his hits home runs.
For the Dodgers, left hander Rich Hill gets the call to start on the hill for this opener. The 38 year old veteran out of Michigan has started 18 games this season and has a record of 6-4 with an ERA of 3.50 and a WHIP of 1.22. Hill has gone 4-0 in seven starts with an ERA of 2.13 since the All-Star break.
Hill was impressive in his last start where he got his sixth win of the season. The 13 year veteran pitched six scoreless innings while allowing just two hits and one walk with eight strikeouts as the Dodgers coasted to an 11-1 win over the San Diego Padres last Friday.Hill has a total of 106 strikeouts in 97.2 innings pitched this season.
Matt Kemp has been successful against Robbie Ray, going 6-14 with two home runs and two doubles against the lefty. Chris Taylor is also 7-16 with a couple of doubles against Ray while Kike Hernandez is 7 out of 26 with 3 homeruns against the Diamondbacks’ starting pitcher.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are 21-6 in their last 27 Game 1s of a series and 36-15 in their last 51 games against left handed pitchers. Meanwhile, the Arizona Diamondbacks are 13-31 in their last 44 road games against the Dodgers.
As for the starters, the Dodgers are undefeated in Hill’s last 4 Game 1 starts. On the other hand, the Diamondbacks 1-7 in Ray’s last eight starts and winless in his last five starts against teams with a record of .500 and above.
Sure, Hill is 0-1 in two starts with an ERA of 12.0 against Arizona this season and he’s only 3-3 in 8 starts at home not to mention that he’s 0-1 in 4 starts in day games. But the hedge here is that his form since the Break is going to upstage his struggles at home and against Arizona. Also, Robbie Ray’s control issues make us lean towards picking Los Angeles.
Ray walked an average of 3.94 batters per nine innings last season. That average has increased to 5.04 this season. We saw those issues in his last start and we think that could be a problem against the Dodgers. We’re picking the Los Angeles Dodgers to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on 8/30/18.
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