Johnny Cueto and Merrill Kelly are the listed starters as the Giants and Diamondbacks fire up a weekend set at Chase Field. The Giants just played the Dodgers in a quick little two-gamer and then had a rare Wednesday off day. The Diamondbacks sunk deeper into despair by getting swept in St. Louis.
This Arizona team is putrid. They are poorly coached and are now missing two really key players yet again in Ketel Marte and Carson Kelly. This has been the worst offense in baseball since mid-May and the second-worst offense in baseball since the start of May. Only the Pirates are worse, though that could change in the not-too-distant future.
Dysfunction reigns supreme with the Diamondbacks, who do have some talent, but Torey Lovullo seems halfway out the door in his final season as manager and he’ll be lucky to latch on as a bench coach somewhere. The bullpen is terrible and the signings that were made to address that unit, with additions of Tyler Clippard and Joakim Soria, have not really panned out. To make matters worse, with something far bigger than baseball, GM Mike Hazen is away from the team as his wife battles brain cancer.
With Hazen away, what seems to be clear tanking in progress, and all sorts of other issues, it doesn’t seem like change is likely to happen for Arizona this season. This is a team that has now lost 48 of their last 56 games and went 3-24 in June. They scored just 3.76 runs per game over May and June.
July begins with a matchup against the Giants and Johnny Cueto. Cueto is having a nice season for the Gigantes with a 3.63 ERA anda 3.80 FIP. Cueto limits walks and still has solid command, so that seems like a bad matchup for the Diamondbacks. Frankly, any matchup is.
Merrill Kelly should be a hot commodity on the trade market. Since coming back from the KBO, he has pitched 306 innings with a respectable 4.32 ERA and a 4.29 FIP. This season, Kelly has fallen on the wrong side of luck. He has a 4.73 ERA with a 3.96 FIP. His 66.9% LOB% is the biggest culprit in this whole equation.
He also got off to a terrible start early in the season coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery. He gave up 16 runs in his first three starts, but has only allowed 35 runs over 13 starts since.
I’m not expecting much offense in tonight’s game. I think it’s tough for the Giants to go into Arizona and be super motivated. Going through the motions is probably more than enough to get a win with the current state of the Snakes. Kelly is pitching for a ticket out of town and Cueto is pitching to keep up with the other guys in the rotation.
I think we see a pretty sleepy game here from both teams and I’ll gladly take that with a look at the under 9.
Pick: Under 9
Other games: San Diego Padres at Cincinnati Reds; St. Louis Cardinals at Colorado Rockies