Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 6/4/2022

Time: 4:05 p.m. ET

Venue: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Where to watch: Bally Sports Arizona, AT&T SportsNet-Pittsburgh

DraftKings: Pirates -130, Diamondbacks +110

BetMGM: Pirates -125, Diamondbacks +105

Caesars: Pirates -130, Diamondbacks +110

Diamondbacks: 26-27

Pirates: 22-28

The Arizona Diamondbacks have been able to surprise a lot of folks, with their starting pitchers playing well and the offense providing timely RBIs. The majority of them, however, have come from home runs and that was no different Friday when the D-Backs hit five of them to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-6.

The second game of the three-game set is Saturday, and the Diamondbacks enter having won three of their last four to pull within one game of .500.

Of those five homers, two of them came off the bat of rookie Alek Thomas. Ketel Marte extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a homer of his own, while Christian Walker and Jake McCarthy also went yard.

"It's pretty big because I haven't hit two home runs in a game since high school," Thomas said. "It gives me some confidence to say, ‘I can do this, I can be here in the major leagues for a good amount of time.'"

Thomas, one of the top prospects in baseball, is batting .259 with five homers and nine RBI since being called up a month ago. He's been part of Arizona's sudden resurgence and now with 53 games in, the talk of the youth movement is looking promising for the D-Backs. 

"He's doing a really good job," Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. "The thing is to keep him on edge, keep him hungry. That's the main objective right now. He's a good baseball player and he's improving every single day."

Arizona trailed 3-2 after Pittsburgh scored a run in each of the first three innings. That's when Arizona took over against Pirates starter JT Brubaker. Thomas connected on his first homer to cut it to 3-2, and then Marte's blast gave them the lead for good in the fifth. Thomas connected again in the seventh for his second blast.

The Pirates cut it to two in the ninth when Ke'Bryan Hayes hit a three-run homer. That prompted Mark Melancon to come in and shut the door with relative ease.

"We'd like to not be down in those later innings, but we're super young and we never feel like we're out of a game, no matter what the score is," Hayes said. "Whenever we're down, there are always people in the dugout saying, ‘Don't give these at-bats away. Every at-bat counts and you never know what can happen.'"

Brubaker, making his 11th start this season, dropped to 0-5 after allowing three homers in those four innings. I'm going to go on a limb and say not good.

The Pirates are sending Roansy Contreras to the mound, and though he's only 1-0 through five appearances, he's been very good in his last two starts allowing two runs and just eight total hits. If he can stifle the power bats, I like Pittsburgh's chances. Pirates win 5-3

Diamondbacks are 8-3 as a road underdog between +100 and +150 this season.

Diamondbacks are 3-25 in June the past three seasons.

Pirates are 9-6 against NL West teams this season.

Diamondbacks:
Daulton Varsho (L) C
Josh Rojas (L) 3B
Ketel Marte (S) 2B
Christian Walker (R) 1B
David Peralta (L) LF
Pavin Smith (L) DH
Jake McCarthy (L) RF
Alek Thomas (L) CF
Geraldo Perdomo (S) SS
SP - Zach Davies

Pirates:
Ke'Bryan Hayes (R) 3B
Bryan Reynolds (S) CF
Daniel Vogelbach (L) DH
Michael Chavis (R) 1B
Rodolfo Castro (S) 2B
Jack Suwinski (L) RF
Diego Castillo (R) SS
Tucupita Marcano (L) LF
Tyler Heineman (S) C
SP - Roansy Contreras

Batting average: Ketel Marte -- .263

Home runs: Christian Walker -- 14

RBI: Christian Walker -- 26

Wins: Merrill Kelly -- 4

ERA: Madison Bumgarner -- 3.31

Batting average: Ke'Bryan Hayes -- .295

Home runs: Bryan Reynolds -- 8

RBI: Ke'Bryan Hayes -- 19

Wins: Dillon Peters -- 4

ERA: Jose Quintana -- 2.32