MLB Baseball
2026-06-26 - Arizona Diamondbacks at Tampa Bay Rays
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : Major League Baseball
Friday 26th June 2026 - Scheduled 7:10pm EST
12:10am (British Time)
Preview
This is an inter-League series featuring two teams with winning records, which is pretty rare even at the halfway mark of the regular season, and both who are chasing big name Divisional leaders.
The Tampa Bay Rays (45-33) are closer with a 2 game gap between themselves and the New York Yankees in the American League East, while the record is one that would put them in command of a Wild Card spot if the season would finish this weekend.
For the Arizona Diamondbacks (41-39), closing the 10.5 game gap between themselves and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West looks unlikely, but they are another team who would be battling for a Wild Card berth into the Playoffs.
Both teams will be turning to struggling starters to open this series and will be looking for improvement out of Nick Martinez and Zac Gallen.
The Rays have Nick Martinez who has put together a 6-2 record and 2.73 ERA in fifteen starts in the first season with the Tampa Bay Rays. That would suggest he is doing anything other than struggling, but the record has been build on his opening eleven starts in this uniform when he did not allow more than two runs in any of those.
However, the shift to June has been more troublesome and Nick Martinez has a 1-1 record and a 6.04 ERA in four starts made this month and has allowed at least three runs in each of those. He has still managed to get into the 6th Inning in each of the last three starts, which will give the Tampa Bay Rays confidence that this is a blip rather than the norm going forward, but Martinez will want to show that on the mound.
Last year Nick Martinez was pitching with the Cincinnati Reds and he did hold the Arizona Diamondbacks to a single run in 6 Innings thrown and earned the decision win.
The Diamondbacks will counter by handing the ball to Zac Gallen who has a 3-6 record and 6.10 ERA in sixteen starts this season and this is looking like being his worst ERA in a single year in the Major Leagues. In fact Zac Gallen is trending towards a worsening ERA from the year before for a fourth successive campaign and that will be a concern for himself and the team.
If Nick Martinez has had four tough starts in a row, Zac Gallen has really struggled since his last decision win and has a 0-2 record and 8.88 ERA in the last five starts. He has also allowed at least three runs in each of those starts, but the difference has been that Zac Gallen has not been able to get through as many Innings as his opposite number through those difficult moments.
Zac Gallen will be pitching against the Tampa Bay Rays for the first time since 2024 when giving up four runs in 5 Innings thrown in a road start and picking up the decision loss.
Tampa Bay have won seven of the last eight between these inter-League opponents.
Prediction
The edge has to be with Tampa Bay Rays thanks to a starting pitcher that has struggled in June, but who is still churning through the Innings.
Zac Gallen has been having a really tough time for the Arizona Diamondbacks though and this could end up being a game where the batters are able to get on top and knock at least nine runs across Home Plate between both teams.
The Pick :
Tampa Bay Rays 6-3 Arizona Diamondbacks
