On Sunday, the Arizona Diamondbacks will try to square the four-game series with the San Francisco Giants. The DBacks are coming off a 7-3 loss on Saturday. Thursday and Friday’s opening two games were shared by the two teams.
Sunday’s pitching battle pits the Giants’ Jordan Hicks (2-0, 1.57) against the Diamondbacks’ Merrill Kelly (2-0, 2.19).
At Oracle Park: Kelly needed 95 pitches to complete five innings of one-run ball against the Cubs last week at Chase Field, even though he only allowed three hits and two walks. Kelly had to work hard to get through the innings. It was his fourth straight season-opening start in which he allowed two runs or fewer. .. Kelly is using his slider three times as frequently as he did the previous season, and with good reason—he is generating a high percentage of whiffs (44.1%) and limiting opponents to a.211 average and.263 slugging percentage when they bat the ball. In two starts versus the Giants the previous season, he recorded a 4.63 ERA. With the St. Louis Cardinals, Hicks pitched mostly in relief during his first five seasons in the major leagues. With four starts under his belt, the transition from reliever to starter has gone very well for him since he signed with the Giants in the winter. Every time he has pitched at least five innings, he has surrendered two runs or fewer. He has a fastball from the mid-1990s, a splitter, and a breaking ball that sweeps. His follow-up products have been quite successful at preventing touch and causing high whiff rates.
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