San Francisco took two of three from the MLB-best Chicago Cubs over the weekend and now welcomes one of the worst teams to ATT Park. The Giants swept a three-game set from the Padres at Petco Park last week, as part of their eight-game winning streak that propelled them to the top of the NL West standings.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
The Giants are running away from the mediocre NL West with a spurt that saw them lose just once in a stretch of 11 games. San Francisco had its eight-game winning streak stopped Friday by the Cubs, but the G-Men bounced back to take the final two games and the series against the top team in baseball. Now the Giants welcome one of the worst teams in the Padres.
Included in SF’s eight-game streak was a three-game sweep in San Diego, the second of the season for the Giants over their division rivals from way down south. San Fran has won all six games outscoring the Padres 29-16. Three of the games were decided by a single run while all six had a margin of four runs or less. During their 10-1 stretch, the Giants are in the black 9.73 units on the moneyline.
PROBABLE PITCHERS
Andrew Cashner (2-3, 4.93 ERA), who suffered a right hamstring strain on May 8 will make his return after the minimum 15-day stint on the disabled list. He last started against the Mets surrendering three runs on eight hits over five innings and hurt himself in that game running the bases. While not considered serious, the Padres played it safe and put Cashner on the DL.
The hard-throwing right-hander has struggled against the Giants with a 5.26 career ERA in 15 games. He toed the rubber in SF on Apr. 27 and lasted just 2.2 innings giving up four hits, four walks and six runs – three earned – in a 13-9 loss.
Jeff Samardzija (6-2, 2.66 ERA) silenced the Padres in his last start, giving up one run and three hits with eight strikeouts over eight innings in a 3-1 win last Thursday. Samardzija has been locked in with only five total runs allowed over his last 31.2 innings covering four starts, lowering his ERA to a lovely 2.66.
Samardzija has gone eight innings in four of his nine starts and continues to put last season’s disaster behind him. He’s rediscovered the slider and has hitters putting the ball on the ground after a sharp increase in fly-ball rate last season brought a spike in home runs with it.
LIVE BETTING
The Giants are winning with superb starting pitching. The Padres just can’t hit. So what does that mean? Well, we don’t know, but going off recent numbers, it’s likely we’ll see another low scoring game between these clubs. San Diego mustered just nine hits in 17 innings during Sunday’s loss to Los Angeles. In seven games since banging out 13 hits in an 8-7 win at Milwaukee on May 14, the Padres haven’t reached double figures and are hitting .163 as a team. Surprisingly, they won twice during that stretch.
San Diego was held to one run in each of the three games against the Giants last week and managed only 13 hits in those games. The Giants haven’t been knocking the cover off the baseball, either, but they are winning games. They’ve scored 3.5 runs per game in their 10 wins and are hitting .163 with runners in scoring position over their last 14. The under is 8-3 over the past 11 games.
QUICK PICK
The Padres did get to Samardzija when they faced him at ATT Park back in April, saddling the Giants’ righty with his worst outing of the year by touching him for five runs and five hits. But he’s been in a groove since then and the Pads are having a tough time hitting their way out of a wet paper bag. Matt Kemp, the only true power threat in the lineup, epitomizes San Diego’s struggles at the dish. He was hitless in seven at-bats Sunday and has just one hit in 28 at-bats over his last seven games.
It hasn’t required too much effort for opponents to shut down the Padres and their overall team batting average has dipped to .224, last in the majors. It’s hard to see them busting out against Samardzija and a Giants staff that has been really good.
MLB Odds: San Francisco 4, San Diego 2
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