Duel In The Desert
Staff ace Brandon Webb looks to continue his recent dominance of the
Los Angeles Dodgers when he takes the mound for the Diamondbacks Sunday.
With one victory, the Arizona Diamondbacks regained control of the
NL West. They appear to have a good chance of increasing their division
lead in the series finale.
Oddsmakers from SBG Global
have made Arizona -140 money line favorites (MLB Odds) for tonight’s game, the over/under has
been set at 7.5 total runs (Matchup). Current public betting information shows that
78% of bets for this game have been placed on Arizona -140 (View MLB Bet Percentages).
Arizona (48-49) lost
Friday’s series opener 8-7 in 11 innings to fall into a first-place tie
with the Dodgers (47-50), but the Diamondbacks were able to regain a
one-game lead with Saturday’s 3-2 win.
"This was about as big as
it’s going to get for this time of year,” said Arizona’s Conor
Jackson, who hit his ninth homer Saturday and is batting .414
(12-for-29) with two RBIs in his last six games.
The Dodgers made
things interesting by scoring twice in the ninth inning, but Matt Kemp
flew out to right to end the game with the tying run on third base. Los
Angeles has lost four of its last six overall and 12 of its last 18 to
Arizona.
"The most important thing, no matter what happens
(Sunday), is we play games either team can win,” Dodgers manager Joe
Torre said. "It doesn’t matter what (Sunday’s) score is. If the score
of the first two games is any indicator, these two clubs belong on the
same field.”
Los Angeles may have trouble scoring runs against Brandon Webb (13-4, 3.23 ERA).
The
2006 NL Cy Young Award winner has won his last seven starts against the
Dodgers, posting a 1.21 ERA in those outings. Webb, who hasn’t lost to
Los Angeles since Sept. 7, 2004, has also recorded a 1.54 ERA while
defeating the Dodgers five straight times at Chase Field.
The
right-handed sinkerballer gave up two runs in 13 innings over his final
two starts before the All-Star break, after going 1-2 with a 7.25 ERA
in his previous four outings.
Last Sunday, he yielded two runs
and seven hits while throwing 108 pitches in seven innings of a 6-3
loss at Philadelphia, but was not a factor in the decision. After that
start, Webb announced he would be unavailable for Tuesday’s All-Star
game, but he ended up throwing a perfect inning of relief in the 14th
inning.
"He wasn’t taxed too much and it ended up being a great
game that everybody was a part of," Arizona manager Bob Melvin told the
team’s official Web site. "To an extent I’m happy it happened."
Los
Angeles counters with a sinkerballer of its own in Derek Lowe (7-8,
3.85), who looks to win three straight starts for the first time this
season.
Lowe is coming off one of his better starts of 2008. He
allowed one run, two hits and one walk in 7 2-3 innings of a 2-1 win
over Atlanta on July 9.
In his only start against Arizona this
season on April 23, Lowe allowed one run and three hits in five innings
of an 8-3 victory. He is 3-2 with a 2.05 ERA in his last five starts
against the Diamondbacks, but is 0-3 with a 4.71 ERA in six career
starts at Chase Field.
Did
you like this article? Subscribe to our Baseball news feed for the fastest
updates delivered right to you – Click here to
Subscribe
