Wednesday night baseball and we will see the Arizona Diamondbacks take on the Cincinnati Reds in game 3 of their 4 game set from Great American Ballpark. The game is scheduled for a 7:10 (ET) pm start time and it will be televised live on Fox Sports Arizona (Diamondbacks)and Fox Sports Ohio (Reds). Currently the odds have Cincinnati favored at -131, while Arizona is dogs of +122. The total for the game sits at 8 runs.
Free Analysis: One of the National League's best pitchers of 2012 faces one of the best from 2011 tonight, when the Cincinnati Reds host the Arizona Diamondbacks in game three of a four-game series at Great American Ball Park. Traded from the San Diego Padres for former All-Star Edinson Volquez, Latos began his tenure in Cincinnati with two losses and an 8.22 earned run average in his initial three starts, but has since won seven straight decisions while halving the ERA to 4.10. He tossed consecutive complete games in wins over Milwaukee and San Francisco on June 25 and 30, and has since gotten no-decisions against San Diego and St. Louis while allowing two runs in 12 innings. Familiar with Arizona from his days with NL West rival San Diego, Latos is 1-0 with a 2.22 ERA and 31 strikeouts in four starts against the Diamondbacks, but 3 of those starts were in Petco, while in his lone starts vs them away from Petco he allowed 3 ER's on 4 hits and 5 walks in just 5.1 innings of work. Votto's loss - he's expected to miss three to four weeks - is a huge blow for the Reds and they showed that last night by getting just 5 hits in a 4-0 win. Rytan Ludwick has five hits in his last 23 at-bats, but three of them have left the park. He's 1 for 10 with six strikeouts against Arizona's Ian Kennedy (6-8, 4.55), who went 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA versus Cincinnati last year but looks to bounce back from one of his worst outings of the season Wednesday. The right-hander gave up six runs and two homers over five innings of an 8-1 loss at Chicago on Friday. Kennedy has yielded a season-high six runs four times this season. He allowed more than five only twice while going 21-4 with a 2.88 ERA in 2011. Walks were an Issue for Bauer last night, But Kennedy has walked just 4 batters in his last 3 starts and a total of 14 batters in 63 road innings this year. Justin Upton and Willie Bloomquist combined for four of the eight hits Tuesday for the Diamondbacks (43-47), who have totaled three runs in their four losses over the last five games. Upton and Bloomquist are a combined for 10 for 18 through the first two games of this series. Arizona won two of three from the Reds in an April series in Phoenix, then won another two of three the following week in Cincinnati. The Reds won the 2011 season series, 4-2.
Free Pick: Not usually a dog player, but I like this spot to take one here. The Reds lead their division, but the loss of Votto will start to hurt them. Last night the Reds won 4-0, but had just 5 hits and were aided by a ton of walk by Bauer, but that is some that won't happen here as Kenned has walked just 4 batters in his last 3 starts and he has walked just 14 batters in 63 innings on the road all year. Kennedy doe has a 4.00 ERA on the road, but with a respectable 1.24 WHIP. The Reds din't really show last night that they were able to string bunch of hits together and they will have to here, because Kennedy just doesn't give many free passes. Kennedy has faced the Reds twice in his career, (both last year) and he allowed just 2 ER's total in 13.1 innings of work. Mat Latos has been stellar for the Reds at home as he is 5-1 with a 3.20 ERA, But he only last 5 innings in his last home start (vs the Cards) and should struggle here vs a underrated D-Back offense. Mat has faced the D-Backs 4 times in his career, but just once outside of Petco and in that start he allowed 3 ER's on 4 hits and 4 walks in just 5.1 innings of work. Also if he does get pulled early bin this one, then he will be turning over the ball to a tired pen. The D-Backs pen has been solid with a 2.48 ERA in their last 10 games, so I say the edge should go to Arizona in the late innings. Look for Arizona to bounce back tonight.
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