All 30 teams are in action across Saturday’s MLB slate. Helping to close down the action, the Colorado Rockies will be taking on the San Diego Padres in a National League West matchup.
Saturday’s contest will mark the third matchup of the four-game series. The Padres have won the opening two games by scores of 7-3 in the 12-inning opener and 5-2 in Friday’s matchup.
The Padres enter as -173 moneyline favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook, while the Rockies sit as a +143 underdog. The run total is set at 8.5.
Rockies at Padres prediction, preview
The Rockies are off to a 6-8 start to the season, and are tied for last place in the NL West. The back-to-back losses to the Padres to start this series snapped a four-game winning streak, as Colorado is coming off a sweep of the Astros in their previous series. On the season, Colorado has gone 10-4 to the run line, and the game total has stayed under in 10 of their 14 games.
Ryan Feltner will make the start for the Rockies on Saturday, his third of the season. The 29-year-old is posting a 4.32 ERA, with four earned runs allowed, eight hits conceded, and five strikeouts tallied across his 8.1 innings pitched. His starts have come against the Blue Jays and Astros so far this season. Feltner has faced off with the Padres roster in a combined 46 at-bats in his career. He has allowed 16 hits and six total runs with San Diego, slashing a combined .348/.423/.391 with a .814 OPS.
Colorado is still developing their young core, with only one player who has logged an at-bat this season over the age of 29. Hunter Goodman, TJ Rumfield, Ezequiel Tovar, and Mickey Moniak are players they hope will emerge as foundational members of their future. As a team, the Rockies are posting slash lines of .246/.306/.376 with 13 home runs and 58 total runs on the season. There has been a greater sense of urgency in Colorado’s efforts to build a winning organization following some shake-ups in the front office, and the results are beginning to show on the field.
The San Diego Padres enter with an 8-6 record on the season, 2.5 games behind the Dodgers for the top spot in the NL West. They enter this matchup on a three-game winning streak and have won six of their last seven. On the season, San Diego has gone 9-5 to the run line, and the game total is 6-7-1 to the over/under.
German Marquez will be getting the start for the Padres after spending the previous 10 seasons of his career with the Rockies organization. Marquez has made two starts for the Padres thus far, posting a 4.50 ERA while allowing 14 hits and four earned runs along with five strikeouts. The 31-year-old has plenty of familiarity with this Rockies team stemming from all his time there, but has faced the expected lineup for just nine at-bats in his career. Jake McCarthy is 2-6 against him with a home run and three RBIs.
Looking at the Padres’ production at the plate, the team is slashing a collective .213/.284/.349 with a .633 OPS. Xander Bogaerts leads the team with 13 hits, two home runs, and eight RBIs. Gavin Sheets, Ramon Laureano, and Jackson Merrill have each also launched two four-baggers. Nick Castellanos, Manny Machado, and Freddy Fermin also play key roles for the team.
Rockies at Padres pick, best bet
This is a revenge matchup opportunity for German Marquez as he will face his former team for the first time in his career. But the level of familiarity the organization has with him should not be viewed as a positive from the Padres’ perspective. Marquez has outperformed expectations in the early parts of this season, but offers a career 4.67 ERA and 1.3 home runs per nine innings. He posted a 6.70 ERA last year with Colorado and a 6.75 ERA the season prior. The improved play is encouraging, but there were legitimate weaknesses he showed last year that should be on display against the organization that knows him best.
The Padres enter this matchup on a three-game winning streak and have won six of their last seven. They have gotten the job done in a variety of ways across this stretch, proving that they don’t need a particular game script to rack up victories. This is especially impressive, considering their stars have not yet shone. Machado is hitting just .195 to start the year with only one home run and five RBIs, while Fernando Tatis Jr. is hitting .189 himself.
However, the concerns with Marquez are too deep to overlook in this matchup. I am not subscribing to the belief that this will be a resurgent season, and I do not believe his former team will put on display why they were motivated to move on from his skill set. Colorado was in impressive form coming into this series, and the opening two games have been closer than the final scores indicate. They pushed the opening matchup to extra innings before falling apart in a 7-3 loss, and rallied to tie the game 2-2 in the eighth inning on Friday before giving up three runs in the ninth.
Back the Rockies to pour on runs at a high rate and snap the two-game losing streak to get back on track. There have been some encouraging signs from the franchise to start the year, and look for them to put this on full display against their former teammate.
Best bet: Rockies Moneyline (+143)
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