St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Diego Padres Prediction: Can the Cardinals Continue to Crush Left-Handed Pitching?
St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Diego Padres Prediction: Can the Cardinals Continue to Crush Left-Handed Pitching?
The San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals figure to be fighting it out for one of the National League’s playoff spots all season, especially if it looks unlikely that either will catch the Dodgers or Brewers in their divisions. That makes their head-to-head matchups much more important, and round one went to the Cardinals, who pulled away for a 6-3 home victory in yesterday’s series opener.
It has been awfully difficult to win consecutive games against San Diego, as they have lost back-to-back games just once since April 15-16. The Padres have won 12 of their last 13 games after a loss, so will they bounce back as road underdogs again tonight, or will the home team (Cardinals) win the tenth consecutive meeting between these teams? Read on for our best play and odds for Tuesday’s National League tilt between the Padres and Cardinals.
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Cardinals vs. Padres Start Time, Where to Watch, and Odds
- Date: May 31, 2022
- Game Time: 7:45 pm ET
- Where to Watch: MLB.TV
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St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Diego Padres Prediction
No team in baseball has been better over the last ten games than the Cardinals, whose 7-3 record is matched only by the Dodgers, Mets, and Blue Jays. A big reason for St. Louis’ success in that span is the hot-hitting of Paul Goldschmidt, who, after hitting a two-run home run in the seventh inning yesterday (his 11th), extended his hitting streak to 21 games. Goldschmidt is now hitting .442 with nine home runs and 31 RBI during the hit streak, and we expect him to continue to do what he has done all season long: mash left-handed pitching.
The Cardinals have an MLB-best .827 OPS against lefties and have the fewest strikeouts (64) of any team against left-handed pitching. Goldschmidt is a big reason for that, as his 1.549 OPS against lefties is the best in baseball by a wide margin, as is his .515 batting average.
Goldschmidt has been getting help lately from Nolan Gorman, who went 3-for-3 yesterday and already has three games with at least three hits through just ten career games.
It will be up to San Diego’s Blake Snell (0-2, 6.00) to figure out how to slow down the Cardinals' offense in just his third start of the season. Snell has thrown nine innings in his two starts and has struggled with command, walking five batters thus far. It looks like Snell is again getting off to a slow start, as last year he was just 3-3 with a 4.99 ERA in 16 starts before the All-Star Break. Walks were also an issue for Snell last year, as he issued 44 walks through his first 70.1 innings.
The over is 6-0-1 in St. Louis’ last seven games following a win and is 3-1-1 in its previous five games against left-handed starters. With the way they have mashed lefties all year, we are backing St. Louis’ team total and not worrying about San Diego’s ability to score runs off veteran Adam Wainwright to exceed the projected full game total.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Diego Padres Pick
- Cardinals Team Total OVER 4.5 Runs (+100) (Bet $100 to Win $100)
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