he St. Louis Cardinals continue their west coast road trip on Monday when they travel to San Diego to face the Padres and debut their newly acquired veteran starter, Kyle Gibson.
St. Louis Cardinals (-115, 8) vs. San Diego Padres
While Gibson did a good job of mitigating hard contact last season while pitching for the Baltimore Orioles with 1.1 home runs per nine innings allowed, but his 15-9 record in 2023 came with an ERA of 4.73.
Gibson pitches to quite a bit of contact, notching 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings last season with a .270 opponents batting average and in Spring Training, gave up a lot of hard hit balls with five home runs allowed across 15 innings.
The Padres turn to Matt Waldron for the start on the mound, who was a revelation in Spring Training with a 1.35 ERA across four appearances after getting his first taste of action at the MLB level last season. In six starts last season, Waldron posted a 4.35 ERA, but a 5.46 fielding independent with allowing two home runs per nine innings.
Waldron benefits from being backed up by the better bullpen, one that was 10th in the league in bullpen ERA last season while the Cardinals were 23rd in this category last season.
Though the Padres lost closer Josh Hader in the offseason, the Cardinals return just one relief pitcher last season that had an ERA below 3.55 as a member of the Cardinals and with the Cardinals 24th in the league last season in runs per game on the road, the Padres will open the series with a win on Monday.
The Play: Padres -105
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