Minnesota Twins at Arizona Diamondbacks Betting Preview/Prop Picks

The game of the day today is the Minnesota Twins at Arizona Diamondbacks. The Twins, with a record of 37-29 this season, have a 17-15 record on the road.

Yesterday, the Twins suffered a 7-2 loss to the Diamondbacks due to their poor pitching. Today they’ll get the chance to bounce back and earn a win on the road. If not, they’ll fall behind 0-2 in a three-game series.

The Diamondbacks aren’t all bad, though; they do a few things quite well. For instance, their batting yesterday as a team was rather impressive. If they can perform the same way today, the Diamondbacks could be in good shape to win.

With a record of 31-35 this season, Arizona needs all of the wins they can get. So, let’s look at both teams and make our picks for today.

Minnesota Twins: Pitching is a major problem for the Twins

Considering they have some of the best batting in the league, pitching is their only weak point. Yesterday, the SP was Devin Smeltzer, who went into the game with a 3-0 record.

However, once he took the mound, he gave up two home runs and a total of seven runs. By the end of his day on the mound, after just 4.1 innings, he was responsible for every run scored by Arizona.

These issues continue to plague the Twins, who didn’t spend enough time on building a strong bullpen. Getting the start tonight is another struggling pitcher, Dylan Bundy. Bundy has an ERA of 5.87 this season with a record of 3-3.

Again, the Twins will need to rely on their great batters to win them a game. Frankly, we feel this is the worst situation for the Twins to be in this year.

Arizona Diamondbacks: Luke Weaver gets the nod to start

There are a few things to note about the Diamondbacks’ win yesterday. For starters, once Smeltzer was pulled from the game, Arizona didn’t score a single run.

That means from the fourth to the ninth inning; the Diamondbacks were shut down. In order to win tonight’s game, Arizona will need to avoid that. The good news is they’ll have a bit of pitching help tonight.

Getting the start on the mound is Luke Weaver, who is 1-0 this season. However, Weaver has only pitched 3.2 innings and has an ERA of 4.91. Although it’s not nearly as bad as Bundy’s ERA, it’s not very good.

More importantly, we have only seen Weaver in a small sample. His inexperience could put the Diamondbacks in a tough position for tonight’s game. 

Minnesota Twins vs. Arizona Diamondbacks Betting Pick

Each of these teams has had struggles this season. For the Diamondbacks, it’s usually been at the plate with a team batting average of .219.

For the Twins, it’s been pitching, which has really hurt them in recent games. On the road with a pitcher who has given up 14 runs in his last three starts, the home-team Diamondbacks are the much better bet here. 

Minnesota comes in as -120 favorites, so getting Arizona at plus-money is pretty great odds. Along with taking the Diamondbacks, we’ll add the over to our ticket as well. Each of the Twins’ last four Saturday games have gone over the total, so we like that bet.

DunkelIndex Free Pick: Arizona Diamondbacks, OVER

Prop Picks

Arizona (-125) OVER 4.5 Runs

Arizona is averaging 4.19 runs per 9 innings on offense, which ranks No. 22 in the league, while averaging 1.18 home runs per 9 innings, which ranks No. 11. Scores have gone OVER in six of the Diamondbacks’ last 10 home games versus the Twins.

With Dunkel predicting an Arizona victory by the score of 6-5, take the Diamondbacks (-125) to finish OVER their Vegas team total of 4.5 runs against Minnesota.

Christian Walker (-135) OVER 0.5 Runs Scored

Walker has scored 28 runs in 64 games, which ranks No. 3 on the Diamondbacks. The first baseman has scored 13 runs in 120 at-bats while connecting on 8 of his 16 HRs at home.

With Dunkel predicting a Diamondbacks home victory while going OVER their Vegas team run total, take Walker (-135) to finish OVER 0.5 runs scored against the Twins.

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All Media on this page by Associated Press.