Making Money on Zona - Diamondbacks at Rockies

Arizona Diamondbacks at Colorado Rockies

BetUS MLB betting matchup:

Right-hander Max Scherzer (5-5, 3.70 ERA) will take the mound for the D-Backs, while southpaw Jorge De La Rosa (4-7, 5.64 ERA) will be the starter for the Rockies.

Here are some of the MLB Baseball betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

* ARIZ has won six of its last seven games

* ARIZ has lost four of its last five road games

* COLO has won 20 of its last 25 games

* COLO has played five of its last six games UNDER the total

* COLO has won eight of its last nine home games

In the HEAD-TO-HEAD sports betting trends:

* ARIZ has won 13 of the last 18 meetings

* ARIZ has won four of the last six meetings as the road team

* Four of the last six meetings in Denver have gone UNDER the total

What's with those D-Backs? This team, whose future looked so bright as the summer started last season, have really taken the plunge. Through Wednesday's games, Arizona was 16 games below the .500 mark, and stuck in last place, 18.5 games behind first-place Los Angeles. Colorado looked like it might be headed toward a similar fate, but shortly after making a change at manager, with Jim Tracy taking over for Clint Hurdle, the team caught fire, going on winning streaks of eleven and six games and getting back into things in the playoff race. The Rockies had won 20 out of 25 as of the start of Thursday's action, and they were a game and a half behind San Francisco for the NL wild card.

Max Scherzer had gone through a period of four starts where he had a 1.46 ERA before he ran into the Angels in his last start and allowing eight runs (three of them earned) in 4-1/3 innings of a 12-8 defeat. Scherzer came to the D-Backs as a big prospect, a first-round draft pick out of the University of Missouri who got to the majors less than two years after being drafted. He was 0-4 last season, but his ERA was lower than it is now. Last season the opposition hit .234 against him; this year opponents are batting .250. He's allowed less than one homer for every ten innings pitched.

Jorge De La Rosa had been hit hard in a couple of starts, allowing 11 runs in eight innings against the Rays and Pirates, before having a solid outing against Oakland last Saturday, surrendering two runs and five hits over six innings. He is striking out more than a batter per inning, and his ratio of strikeouts to walks is similar to what it was last season. He has also won four of his last five decisions, after an 0-6 start. However, his ERA at Coors Field has been horrible (7.97).

We recognize that De La Rosa has had a 2.57 lifetime ERA against the Diamondbacks. Whether he'll get enough offensive support to overcome that is a question, however, considering that the Rockies are going through a rough stretch at the plate, scoring just eight runs in their last four games. This may be enough to grab a price with the D-Backs, the underdog in the BetUS National League baseball betting odds.

JAY'S PLAY: ARIZONA **

(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)