The Arizona Diamondbacks took their series opener against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night with a 6-2 win.
Arizona is in first place in the National League West, and the team has done it with great hitting (sixth in OPS this season).
Those bats will have a chance to get hot against Tyler Anderson (4-2, 5.54 ERA) on the mound for the Angels against Arizona's Ryne Nelson (4-4, 4.97 ERA).
Nelson is coming off a great start on June 25, tossing seven innings of one-run ball against the San Francisco Giants.
Can he keep that going against Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani?
Here are the odds for Saturday night's matchup and my best bet:
Diamondbacks vs. Angels odds, run line and total
Diamondbacks vs. Angels prediction and pick
These are two of the best offenses in baseball this season, ranking fourth (Los Angeles) and sixth (Arizona) in OPS.
While they combined for just eight runs in the series opener on Friday night, I expect a much different look with these two starters on the mound on Saturday.
Arizona comes into this matchup fifth in the league in runs per game while Los Angeles is seventh, and both starters have shaky numbers in 2023.
Anderson has an ERA north of 5.00, and he wasn't great in four June starts, posting a 5.73 ERA and allowing more hits than innings pitched.
Nelson – to his credit – has a lower Fielding Independent Pitching than his ERA, but he boasts a scary 1.45 WHIP on the season, allowing 93 hits and 28 walks in just 83.1 innings of work.
I'm not totally buying his start against the Giants as a sign that he is turning things around, so I'll take the OVER and expect both teams to get their bats going after a quieter game on Friday.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
