The Arizona Diamondbacks have been one of the biggest enigmas in Major League Baseball this year. After starting the season 20-8, they have been on a huge decline. They are 20-43 since being 12 games over .500 in the first month of the season.
The Diamondbacks have lost 17 of their last 26 road games as they head to San Francisco. They have lost their last three contests versus the Giants after starting the season 4-1 in their first five meetings.
The one bright spot for the Diamondbacks has been the starting pitching, particularly Cy Young candidate Dan Haren. Haren's 2.58 ERA ranks second in the National League but he has been much sharper of late.
Since the start of June, Haren has given up only nine earned runs in 63 innings pitched (1.28 ERA). He's 4-1 in that span while averaging seven innings per start. Opposing hitters have been struggling to connect to his pitches. He's struck out 59 batters and walked only 13 in his last 63 innings pitched.
For the most part, Haren has pitched equally well at home as on the road, even though his win-loss record indicates otherwise. He is 8-2 at home and just 1-3 on the road. That has been a direct result of the run support he has – or hasn't – received. At home, the Diamondbacks have provided an average of 5.6 runs per game. That averaged has dropped to 3.3 on the road.
Haren will match up against Jonathan Sanchez , who was among the best pitchers in the league in June, but has struggled this month.
In June, Sanchez allowed only 14 earned runs in 40.2 innings pitched (1.32 ERA) while posting a 5-1 record. But July has been a different story for Sanchez.
The Giants had won 13 of his first 17 starts this year but have lost his last three. Sanchez might be a little gassed out as he's only pitched 14.1 innings in his last three starts. He's given up 10 earned runs in those 14 innings (6.28 ERA) while the Giants opponents have averaged 7.6 runs in those three games.
Sanchez has never pitched more than 52 innings in a season and he's already at 116.1, which means he might be getting fatigued. Even so, he still ranks sixth in the Majors with 123 strikeouts, averaging 6.15 per start.
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