Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #77: 6/23 vs. Giants

As the Giants win streak began to pick up momentum, this series began to take on increasing significance. Before it began on June 7, the Giants were seven games back in the division, sitting at an exactly even mark of 32-32. They were actually as close to the Rockies in last place, as to the Diamondbacks. But ten wins in a row will do any mid-standings team the power of good, and the Giants have now leap-frogged the Dodgers for second. Despite the winning streak having hit the buffers in no uncertain style yesterday, with a 10-0 hammering by the Padres, San Francisco now has a better run differential than Arizona. They sit at +44, two behind LA and seven ahead of our +37.

We begin with a start which would appear to clearly favor the visitors. Logan Webb’s 3.11 ERA is exactly four runs below that of Zach Davies. He did a good job of shutting us down when the D-backs saw him on May 14. He allowed one run over seven innings, but got stuck with a no-decision, Arizona walking it off in the ninth on a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. double. That might be our best hope of victory here. Davies manages to keep us in the game, and turn it into a battle of bullpens. Certainly, if we can see both starters out of the game with the score still tied, I would take that before first pitch. It will be Davies’s first start against SF. It can’t be much worse than his outing in Cleveland. And, no - that is NOT a challenge.

I guess the good news is, the Giants loss yesterday improved the Diamondbacks’ lead to 3¹⁄₂ games meaning that even if San Francisco were to sweep, we will still be in first. With Merrill Kelly going tomorrow, and the Giants not having announced a starter, I feel optimistic about that one, and suspect we may well go into Sunday with it becoming a rubber game to decide the series. I’m hopefully Arizona can pull it out: beating San Francisco without the benefit of a Zac Gallen start (and at home, too, where he has been literally unbeatable this year) would bode well as we head towards the half-way point of the season. It should be an interesting series, to be sure. To be the best, you gotta beat the best!