MLB Picks: April 12th 2012
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. San Diego Padres
Pick: Diamondbacks -128
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Arizona dropped its first game of the season last night against San Diego so expect a big bounceback here tonight. The Diamondbacks are 4-1 and are coming off their worst offensive performance of the season as they put up just one run. The bats have been relatively slow to start the season as they are hitting just .218 but the pitching has more than made up for it and we should see that a lot this season. Arizona currently possesses a 3.33 team ERA.

The Diamondbacks go with Ian Kennedy who is coming off a sensational season a year ago. He went 21-4 with a 2.88 ERA and 1.09 WHIP but he was not unable to even sniff the Cy Young Award because of even better performances from Clayton Kershaw and Roy Halladay. While his ERA this year is 4.05 after one start, he did toss a quality outing against the Giants as he allowed three runs in 6.2 innings. Kennedy has feasted off the Padres as he is 5-0 with a 2.01 ERA and 0.92 WHIP in seven career starts.

The Padres are off to a 2-4 start to the season and it is one that is expected to be a long one. While the Diamondbacks offense has been slow out of the gates, the Padres offense has been even worse as they are hitting just .180 through five games. This is no surprise though. Last season, San Diego finished with the lowest batting average in the National League while its 593 runs scored were the second fewest in the league. The Padres had only 35 home wins last year, fifth fewest in baseball.

Anthony Bass will be making his first start of the season as his first early work this season has come exclusively out of the bullpen. He has allowed just one run in four innings and if last year was any indication, he likely won’t be going far in this start. He made three starts last season and he did not go past five innings in any of those as his pitch count was limited, which will be the case again Thursday. 3* (959) Arizona Diamondbacks