National League West Baseball This Weekend

The most difficult division in all of baseball to call right now would have to be the National League West. With three teams within half a game of the division lead, there's a good chance the division race could go right down to the wire. That's months away, but the division should grab headlines this weekend with all three of the potential leaders meeting up with a divisional foe. The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks entered Thursday night's action deadlocked atop the division, with the L.A. Dodgers sitting only half a game back. This weekend the Padres and Dodgers face off for three games at Dodger Stadium. At the same time the Diamondbacks have a three-game set in San Francisco against the last-place Giants. If Arizona can pull off a sweep against the lowly Giants, they could take over first place while the Padres and Dodgers beat up on each other. The pitching-rich Padres and experienced Dodgers appear to have the edge over the Diamondbacks, whose roster includes five rookies, but with reigning Cy Young Award winner If you tune in for only one game in those series make it Saturday's contest between San Diego and Los Angeles. An Under bet in that game would probably be the smartest bet of the weekend, as the Padres send ace Jake Peavy up against Dodgers ace Brad Penny. Peavy is 9-2 on the season with the third-best ERA in the NL at 2.14. Peavy also leads the league with 113 strikeouts. Penny has been equally impressive with a 10-1 mark and an NL leading ERA of 2.04. Peavy is coming off his second loss of the season versus Boston last week and should be anxious to rebound with a strong performance, especially in such an important divisional matchup. Penny rolled through Arizona in his last start, allowing only one run on four hits over eight innings. Penny has allowed only one run in each of his last four starts. If he keeps this up, Penny could be poised to go on another streak like when he went undefeated in his first eight starts of the season. Check out Baseball Betting Odds at WagerWeb.com. Brandon Webb and Randy Johnson at the top of their rotation the D'Backs are not to be counted out.