The Arizona Diamondbacks knocked off the best team in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays, in the series opener on Tuesday and will look to make it two straight in a battle of division leaders.
The Rays have been one of the best offenses in baseball all year, but the D-Backs aren't too far behind, but the team will need better pitching from Zach Davies in order to pull off a second straight win.
Oddsmakers aren't expecting it with Arizona slated as home underdogs on Wednesday night with Tampa Bay set to start Zach Eflin. Can Davies outperform expectations after a rough start to the season?
Here are the odds for a battle of first place teams:
Rays vs. Diamondbacks odds, run line and total
Rays vs. Diamondbacks prediction and pick
After spending more than a month on the injured list after two bad starts to begin the 2023 campaign, Davies has had a mixed bag of results. In six starts, he has a 8.84 ERA with a 3.37 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) mark, signaling that he has been on the wrong side of some variance when the ball is put in play.
While it's never easy against the Rays, who are third in the big leagues in OPS, Davies is due for some better results in the near future with his ability to avoid hard contact. He is allowing only seven percent of fly balls to leave the yard, but opponents are hitting .337 when the ball is put in play, a number bound to drop with more reps.
The D-Backs offense is going to be a tough out as well for Eflin, who are now hitting better than the Rays on the year (third in big league batting average). Arizona doesn't have as much power on a nightly basis as the Rays, but the team is efficient at the plate around rookie sensation Corbin Carroll, who is sixth in Major League Baseball OPS.
Davies is due some better results in the field, but the D-Backs offense is too potent to be considerable home underdogs, even against the best team in baseball. I'll take a shot on Arizona on Wednesday night.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
