San Diego Padres at St. Louis Cardinals Betting Preview
After some Memorial Day matinee baseball, the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals get back to a more normal schedule when they continue their series on Tuesday night.
It was a tough ask for the Padres to come from the West Coast for an early Monday afternoon start – and it showed with the Cardinals pulling off a 6-3 win in the series opener.
Now that the Padres’ body clocks have adjusted, do they even up the series on Tuesday night? Oddsmakers have the Redbirds as -130 favorites in what should be a good pitching matchup with the run total set at 8.5.
Padres Had Hoped Road Was Kind
San Diego was just 3-3 on their recent homestand but were optimistic that taking to the road would right their ship. The Padres came into Monday’s series opener, having won six of their previous seven road contests but weren’t able to get much offense going in Game 1.
Manny Machado returned from an elbow injury that forced him to miss Saturday and Sunday’s split with the Pirates but was just 1-5. Jurickson Profar went 3-5 from the leadoff spot, but the rest of the lineup couldn’t manufacture any way to get him home at all.
Blake Snell (0-2, 6.00 ERA) takes the hill on Tuesday for his third start since returning from a groin injury. Since his return, he has allowed 3ER to both the Phillies and Brewers in a total of 9.0 IP, which were both also Padres losses.
Goldy Staying Hot
The Cardinals are just 4-3 on their current homestand, which is kind of baffling the way Paul Goldschmidt is hitting the ball lately. Goldschmidt hit his 10th HR of the year on Monday and is now batting .455 over his past six games.
Rookie Nolan Gorman also continued an impressive start to his MLB resume with his first HR on Monday while also going 3-3. He’s now hitting .321 through the first ten games of his career and picking up some slack for another Nolan – Arenado – who is 0 for his last 17.
Adam Wainwright (5-4, 3.12 ERA) opposes the Padres on Tuesday night after allowing ten hits, but only 3 ER, to the Brewers in his last start. Wainwright is 2-2 with a 3.12 ERA at Busch Stadium this season.
Padres vs Cardinals Pick and Prediction
That’s not a bad -130 price tag on St. Louis, even though they are just 13-11 at home in 2022. The Padres as a franchise have traditionally struggled at Busch Stadium, going 21-54 in their last 75 visits. With Monday’s win, the Cardinals have now won four straight head-to-head contests in the series.
Goldschmidt is hot, Arenado is due, and a couple of rookies in Gorman and Juan Yepez are giving St. Louis some nice production lately. Combine that with Snell being a bit shaky in his two starts since returning from the IL, and you have to go with the home team here.
Betting Pick: St. Louis -130
