How Will The Giants Respond After Bring Swept By The Dodgers?

After being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants look to rebound with their first home series of the year. The Giants are already down significantly in the MLB standings despite being just one week into the season.

But there’s plenty of time to get back into the NL West and NL Wild Card races. After all, it’s only been seven games, and prize left-handed pitcher Blake Snell hasn’t even started a game yet. Snell was among the MLB stat leaders for many categories in his NL Cy Young season last season.

Meanwhile, the San Diego Padres are coming into this series with a record below .500. The Padres don’t have an exciting roster like last year’s team, but San Diego still has enough to win a Wild Card spot.

They’re just in a really tough NL West, where they have to play the Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and San Francisco Giants.

Ultimately, these divisional games are critical, despite it being early on in the season. We’ll have some MLB bets today, so make sure to look at Padres vs Giants betting predictions below.

Padres Struck Out This Off-Season

The Padres went crazy during last year’s free agency, bringing in multiple all-stars, including Xander Bogaerts. However, this year, the Padres slimmed down and didn’t go nearly as crazy after missing the playoffs entirely last year.

That said, it hasn’t been released that the Padres had tried to trade with the Marlins for Luis Arraez and Jesus Luzardo. In other instances, the Padres had also looked into Corbin Burnes, Sal Frelick, and Jarren Duran.

San Diego made strong offers for Arraez and Luzardo but instead got Dylan Cease from the Chicago White Sox. The Padres still made a major deal with Cease, but it would’ve been interesting to see those guys on the San Diego roster. It just never actually had legitimate legs.

Blake Snell’s Nearing Debut

The prized left-handed pitcher, Blake Snell, won’t debut in this series against his former team in, the Padres. However, he’ll start for the Giants on Monday against the Nationals for his San Francisco debut.

Snell signed with the Giants late in the offseason and needed some time to overcome his fatigue. But after pitching in another simulated game, he’s now ready to go for the Giants on Monday.

Padres vs Giants Betting Odds Game 1: ML Giants -115, O/U 8 -105/-115.

In the first game of the series, Dylan Cease will take the mound for the Padres. In his first start, he only threw 4.2 innings but had six strikeouts and a WHIP of .86, despite an ERA of 3.86 against the Giants on March 30.

Cease struck out 31.6% of batters but also allowed 36.4% of fly balls and only 18.2% of grounders in his first start. While Cease has put away stuff, he still allowed a .155 ISO and wOBA of .326 to 783 batters last season with the White Sox.

Cease will face Jordan Hicks of the Giants. Hicks has been stretched into a starter with the Giants. Last year, he was more of a reliever with the Cardinals. Hicks looked solid in his first start.

He didn’t allow a run and earned six strikeouts with a WHIP of .80 against this same Padres team he’ll face in Game 1 of the series. Hicks only allowed three hits and one walk and is in a better position than Cease in this game.

The Giants will face three right-handers in this series. When combining this year’s and last year’s stats, the Giants’ projected lineup has hit about a .150 ISO and wOBA of .322. They’ve also struck out at a very high rate. Two batters that have had solid success against righties dating back to last year include LaMonte Wade and Mike Yastrzemski.

Meanwhile, the Padres haven’t been electric against righties. Jackson Merrill has done some good things, and Fernando Tatis, Jake Cronenworth, and Manny Machado have some power against righties dating back to last year.

Don’t be surprised when the Giants earn a win at home in Game 1 as small favorites.

It’ll be Michael King for the second game of this series with the Padres. King has already thrown in two games but has a 6.14 ERA in 7.1 innings pitched.

However, in those 7.1 innings, King has struck out 11 batters. He also has a 2.18 WHIP. On March 31, he went four innings against this Giants team and allowed two hits and two earned runs. But he made things very difficult on himself with seven walks.

King walked 33.3% of batters faced in that game.

King will face San Francisco’s Keaton Winn in Saturday’s game. Winn is good at keeping walks down. However, he wasn’t much of a strikeout threat last year. Still, Winn added six strikeouts in five innings against the Dodgers and allowed three runs and four hits with just one walk.

That wasn’t a horrible outing, considering it was against the Dodgers. He’s typically a high-ground ball pitcher. In 173 plate appearances last year against Winn, Winn induced 59.3% of grounders. He’s got potential if his strikeout numbers rise like this. Nobody would be surprised if the Giants also won Game 2 of the series.

Finally, Matt Waldron will get the final start of this series for the Padres. Waldron also struggled to get through five innings in his first start. While he struck out seven, he also had a WHIP of 2.50 in his first start of the season against the Cardinals. He gave up nine hits, four runs with one walk, and seven strikeouts.

Righties smashed Waldron in his first start, earning a .333 ISO and wOBA of .503 in 12 plate appearances.

On the other hand, Logan Webb will rock the mound for the Giants, which is a major matchup advantage for the Giants. Webb earned 62.6% of ground balls last season and allowed just 14.6%.

Webb has thrown in two games and has ten strikeouts in 9.2 innings. However, his ERA is currently 6.52, and his WHIP is at 1.66. That will start to decrease as the season goes on. In an earlier game against the Padres, Webb held San Diego to five hits and two runs in six innings. It was his start against the Dodgers that had the damage.

Therefore, Webb could get the Giants a sweep over the Padres over the weekend. It’s looking likely when reviewing the Padres vs Giants betting matchups over the weekend. 

For MLB betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.

Can’t get enough? Here’s more!

• Expect The Dodgers To Keep On Winning Over The Weekend
• Sox vs Royals Lines & Preview
• Ronel Blanco Grounds the Jays For First Career No-Hitter1
• Twins vs Brewers Preview: Milwaukee Looks To Stay Perfect vs Minnesota
• Yankees Hope to Build on Hot Start Against Defending NL Champions