Baseball is a beautiful thing — all 30 MLB teams take the field again on Saturday as the league hits its stride following the All-Star break earlier this week.
At 5:45 p.m. EST this afternoon, the Washington Nationals host the San Diego Padres for the second leg of a three-game series. This’ll be one to check out as Yu Darvish makes his third start of the season against a feisty Washington squad that can’t be counted out on any given night.
Here’s a Nationals vs. Padres prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for Saturday’s action.
Nationals vs. Padres prediction, preview
The Padres took the opening game of this series by a 7-2 margin last night as Dylan Cease threw a gem with 10 strikeouts and just four hits over 5.1 scoreless innings. The Friars didn’t have a grand slam on the season heading into that game but a blast by Manny Machado put Slam Diego back on the map in the standout victory. Luis Arraez, Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth all finished with multiple hits in the effort as well.
The Padres rank 16th in team AVG and 23rd in OPS on the season with the 25th-most runs scored, a far cry from some of the team’ high-scoring offenses of years past. They’re still 53-34 and second in the NL West on the backs of a standout pitching staff at sixth in ERA, ninth in WHIP and eighth in strikeouts overall. They hold the upper hand going into this matchup, but the Padres’ 22-26 record on the road lingers for consideration.
The Nationals had a rough time in the scoring column yesterday despite tallying nine hits on the evening. Star shortstop CJ Abrams knocked a two-run homer but while Josh Bell, Nathaniel Lowe and Jacob Young all logged multiple hits. Still, it wasn’t enough as Washington was limited to two runs.
The Nationals do have a hint of upside on offense at 17th in runs scored, 18th in AVG and 21st in OPS. However, their pitching staff holds them back with the 29th-ranked ERA and 26th-ranked WHIP. At 38-59, the Nats aren’t a winning team, but they’re admittedly feisty and can hang in there against good squads when their own bats are firing.
Nationals vs. Padres pick, best bet
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Padres as -149 favorites on the Moneyline in this contest while the Nationals are +123 home underdogs. The run total sits at nine.
Young left-hander Mitchell Parker (5.12 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 66 SO) starts for Washington this afternoon with 102.0 innings to his name this season. He faces Yu Darvish (6.48 ERA, 1.68 WHIP, seven SO), who returned from an extended injury absence back on July 7. Darvish only has two starts to his name this season with 8.1 innings in total, so his stats remain based on a very small sample size.
The Padres’ splits against lefties sit just a hair behind their numbers against righties, so with a .244/.311/.384 slash line vs. southpaws, the matchup doesn’t look bad against Parker. The 25-year-old’s ERA sits a bit high to begin with and his rate stats are inflated with a 5.84 ERA and 1.62 WHIP over his last seven starts. Plus, he’s not a strikeout threat and allowed seven and four earned runs over his previous two appearances.
Considering those factors, I’m watching for the Padres’ bats to stay hot tonight and shell Parker. Last night’s return to the diamond should have energized this team, and with a positive pitching matchup against the starter and a poor bullpen, I’m watching for San Diego to win by multiple runs. Even if Darvish struggles out of the gate, the Padres’ pen should make up for it.
Best bet: SD Padres -1.5 (+112)
Click the odds on this bet to tail!
