The Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks are part of a six-team race for the three Wild Card spots in the National League along with the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, and Miami Marlins. 

The Cincinnati Reds have the toughest schedule of the six teams over the next three series as the Reds will have faced the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants, and Chicago Cubs over their next six games. The Reds ended their two-game losing streak with an 8-7 win in game three of the series on the road against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Matt McLain hit a one-run home run in the 6^th inning while the winning run was scored in the 11^th inning when TJ Friedl scored off a balk.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are currently in the final Wild Card spot in the National League and are a .5 game ahead of the Cincinnati Reds which means game four of the series on Sunday will be a pivotal game between the two teams. Arizona saw their six-game winning streak come to an end with Saturday’s 7-8 loss in extra innings at home against the Cincinnati Reds. Three of the runs came in the 5^th inning when Ketel Marte hit a three-run home run that also scored Jose Herrera and Corbin Carroll.

BookMaker has the Arizona Diamondbacks listed as -125 money line favorites against the Cincinnati Reds at home in game four of the series. Cincinnati has won six of the last ten and have won by an average margin of .6 runs per game in those contests while the Diamondbacks have won two of the last three games by an average margin of .67 runs per game.

Arizona will have the slight advantage at pitcher for game four of the series on Sunday as the Diamondbacks will send Slade Cecconi to the mound while the Reds will send Graham Ashcraft to the mound on Sunday afternoon. Ashcraft is 7-8 this season with a 4.84 ERA while recording 100 strikeouts while Slade Cecconi has not factored into a decision in his rookie season with an ERA of 2.93 and has recorded nine strikeouts.

Graham Ashcraft has only faced Arizona one other time in his career which came during the 2022 MLB season and resulted in a win with Ashcraft not allowing a run and striking out four in the matchup. In his last three starts this season, Ashcraft is 1-1 with a no-decision while allowing seven runs and striking out 19 in those starts.

This is Slade Cecconi’s rookie season and he has yet to take the mound against Cincinnati, however, in his last three starts Cecconi has three no-decisions while allowing three runs and striking out seven batters in those matchups.

Arizona has been the hotter team entering this game as they have won six of their last seven games including two of the three games in this series while winning by an average margin of .67 runs per game in those matchups. I give the slight edge to Cecconi and the Diamondbacks at pitcher for game four as he is allowing an average of 1 run per game and 2.33 strikeouts per game over his last three starts while Ashcraft has allowed an average of 2.33 runs and 6.33 strikeouts per game. As a result, I am taking the money line for the Arizona Diamondbacks at -125 on BookMaker for game four of the series on Sunday afternoon.