Arizona Diamondbacks vs Detroit Tigers: Free ATS Expert MLB Prediction, 6–13–2017
Arizona Diamondbacks (39–26) at Detroit Tigers (30–32)
ATS Expert Free MLB Prediction by Lyle Clark
Date: June 13, 2017 | Game Time: 7:10 pm
MLB Odds: Detroit Tigers +110, 9
Starting Pitchers: Z. Greinke (8–3) (3.20) vs. B. Farmer (2–0) (0.00)
An Interleague matchup pits the Arizona Diamondbacks of the NL West vs the Detriot Tigers of the AL Central. Both teams are currently 3rd place in their respective divisions.
Arizona is playing in the best division in baseball and are looking up at the Dodgers and Rockies but only remain 1.5 games behind. The Diamondbacks have won five of six after knocking off visiting Milwaukee 11–1 on Sunday. Arizona is slight road favorites (-120) Tuesday night with Zach Greinke on the mound. Greinke has been pretty good for Arizona this season with an 8–3 record and a 3.20 ERA. He went just five innings last time out against San Diego and allowed three earned runs. He has pitched a lot against the Tigers in his career with a 2.79 ERA and a 13–7 record.
Diamondbacks are 4–0 in their last 4 interleague games.
Detroit will hand the ball to RH Buck Farmer. Farmer has pitched 13 innings and has yet to allow a run and has 16 strikeouts in two games, including an 11 SO performance vs the White Sox. The Tigers are searching for back to back victories after thumping the Red Sox 8–3 on Sunday Night Baseball which snapped a three-game skid.
Detroit is ranked 25th in MLB with a team ERA of 4.81 which has been their Achilles heel this season. Their offense has been decent, sporting a .255 team batting average but their power numbers are down a bit due to Miguel Cabrera batting only .268 with 5 home runs. Cabrera has been dealing with some injuries and has been a shadow of his former self this season. Justin Upton is having a solid season batting .269, 13 HR’s, 40 RBI’s and leads the team in all of those offensive categories for players with more than 125 plate appearances.
Tigers are 4–1 in their last 5 interleague home games vs. a team with a winning record
On paper, this should be a pitchers dual but it will be interesting to see how Buck Farmer approaches this Diamondbacks offense. Arizona is 10th in MLB with a .260 BA and have scored 335 runs so far this season. Paul Goldschmidt (.317, 14 HR, 51 RBI) and Jake Lamb (.276, 16 HR, 57 RBI) are the power sources for this Diamondbacks lineup that boasts one of the top offenses in baseball.
Another key factor in this matchup is the bullpen. Zach Greinke has averaged 6 innings per outing and is no stranger to going deep in a ballgame but he’ll have confidence handing the ball off to his bullpen which ranks 9th in MLB with a 3.65 ERA. Detroit on the other hand currently ranks 29 out of 30 teams with a bullpen ERA of 5.33 which means they will need Buck Farmer to go deep in this game.
I like the Diamondbacks as slight road favorites in this matchup with Greinke on the mound. In all aspects of the game, the Diamondbacks are superior. I do like the way Farmer has pitched but he hasn’t faced an offense like Arizona and the Tigers bullpen has been awful which puts more pressure on him to go late in this game. Greinke is a big game pitcher and he gets the job done this evening in Detroit.
Diamondbacks vs Tigers Free MLB Pick: Arizona -120
