The Arizona Diamondbacks will face the Giants for the first time this season and will become familiar with Justin Verlander in a new uniform when the rivals of the West National League begin a series of three games on Monday evening in San Francisco.
The two teams come out of exhausting experiences that ended with disappointing flights to San Francisco on Sunday evening.
The Diamondbacks 8-1 home defeat on Sunday afternoon ended a set of four tense games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It also served as a continuation of a 24 -day damaged section in which the Arizona saw the Cubs of Chicago, Tampa Bay Rays, Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Dodgers a total of 22 times.
The Diamondbacks only took 9-13 in the Gauntlet, having alternated defeats and victories during their last nine outings against phillies, food and dodgers.
Meanwhile, the Giants returned home with a sequence of three consecutive defeats – all defeats in a race in a confrontation interligated with the Minnesota Twins.
The third of three disappointments was the most difficult. The giants led 3-0 early, then 6-5 at the bottom of the 10th, only to see Ryan Walker Closer abandon a single twice at Dashawn Keirssey Jr. in a 7-6 defeat against the Twins.
“Sometimes baseball is a cruel match,” said Giants manager Bob Melvin, after Sunday’s defeat, whom he watched from the clubhouse after being ejected into the ninth round. “Just a difficult series for us. We have to go home and take the lead, play home like us.”
The Giants won their last home series – on the Brewers Milwaukee, Texas Rangers and Colorado Rockies. However, two of the three defeats among these 10 games came to Verlander.
Verlander (0-2, 4.50 ERA) has not yet recorded a victory in eight departures since his signature with San Francisco during the offseason. Three of these eights led to team victories, including a triumph of 14-5 and 11 rounds on the Cubs last Tuesday in a match that the 42-year-old left with an advance of 5-3 in five rounds.
His quest for career victory n ° 263 will continue against a team of Diamondbacks which he faced eight times during his 20 seasons. The right-hander passed 5-2 with an MPM of 3.14 in eight departures despite its noise for eight points in just three rounds in 2024 in head to head while the Astros of Houston.
Verlander opposed the planned starter of Arizona on Monday, the right-hander Merrill Kelly (3-2, 4.09 ERA), only once in their careers, and the two launched well in the 1-0 Victory of the Astros in 2023. Verlander launched five innings to obtain the victory, while Kelly was a hard struggle after having limited Houston to a race in seven series.
The Giants will see a Diamondbacks team which is relatively well rested despite their brutal recent schedule. The manager of Arizona Torey Lovullo gave Lourdes Gurriel Jr. a day off on Saturday, then seated Ketel Marte on Sunday despite the matches with the powerful Dodgers.
“We are going to enter a very good pace here where he will eventually play six, seven days in a row,” said Lovullo about Marte, who missed almost a full month earlier this season with a tense left hamstrings.
As for Gurriel, the director reported: “He came to my office (and) said:” I am tired. I will need a day off here very soon. “”
Kelly went 7-5 with an MPM of 3.30 in 19 career debut against the Giants.
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