Under Is Best Look In D'Backs Vs. Angels

Diamondbacks vs. Angels, 4:07 ET

If you've been following me this past week, you've had the extremes. On some days, I dropped both plays and they looked pretty bad. Some of them weren't terrible, but I'm not going to spend time defending something that I can't change. Other days, we looked like world beaters, winning both plays. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride. Let's hope we can get back to the peak here in a matchup between the Diamondbacks and Angels.

Let's see a show of hands from those that had the Diamondbacks in first place within the division after 81 games... Right, didn't think anyone was out there, except for you three die-hard snake lovers in the back. Here we are though with them clinging to a divisional lead and having one of the better records in all of the National League. Good for them. They kind of feel like the Sacramento Kings to me in the NBA. Something just clicked for them and they finally made it to the playoffs, but they also got there by winning their division. That's impressive stuff and what the Diamondbacks are doing right now is certainly impressive. They've gotten here with a combination of good hitting and pitching. One of their best pitchers toes the rubber today in Zac Gallen. We've talked about his streakiness before where he spins gems over and over. He did it in April, but hasn't quite gotten there in May or June. He didn't have bad months, but not as strong as other ones. He has a substantially higher ERA on the road than at home this season, but not all road starts have been bad. He has three with at least four earned allowed, and four with three or fewer earned runs allowed. Most Angels hitters with experience against him haven't done anything.

The Angels are at least in a position to make a trade at the deadline that could help them with a playoff push. With Shohei Ohtani pretty much locking up the MVP race already, it is hard to imagine that the Angels want to waste yet another season. Ohtani is also going to be a free agent at the end of the year. Some numbers have already been thrown out that are north of 500 million dollars for the superstar and some are saying that's too low. It can be annoying writing about the Angels because for years we just wrote about Mike Trout. Now we just write about Shohei Ohtani. There is more to the Angels squad than those two. In fact, today's starter, Reid Detmers is having a pretty nice campaign. At home, he has been really good with a 3.40 ERA. He also had a great June, allowing just seven earned runs over 30.2 innings. He's gone four straight games without allowing more than one earned run. I think the Diamondbacks are going to be in a bit of trouble offensively.

The line for this game is 8.5 and I think we need to take the under at even money. I could see Gallen allowing a couple of runs, and maybe the Angels win the game so that could be worth a sprinkle too. However, the way Detmers is pitching is too good to ignore right now. Sure, the wheels could fall off any second, but this is worth a shot. Play the under.

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