MLB Baseball
2012-07-24 - San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Tuesday 24 July 2012 - First Pitch 10:15pm ET
3:15am (British Standard Time)
Preview
Both of these teams may be in the National League West, but the San Francisco Giants (54-42) have real ambitions of making it to the post-season, while the San Diego Padres (41-57) don't have those same ambitions or expectations.
The Giants are currently leading the National League West, but that is by a small margin of 1.5 games over the LA Dodgers, while the Padres are 14 games behind the leading team. San Francisco also took game one of this three game series last night and will feel confident they can secure the series win in this one.
San Francisco give the ball to Madison Bumgarner who has an 11-6 record and a 3.12 ERA, but even that looks huge compared to what he has managed to do at home. Here, Bumgarner is 7-1 with a 1.81 ERA from eight starts, while he has lowered the ERA to 1.14 in his last four starts at AT&T Park.
Bumgarner will likely be expecting to improve his run at home further as the batting line up has come alive a little bit over the last couple of weeks. They have scored at least six runs in five of their last seven games.
San Diego will counter with Edinson Volquez who has a 6-7 record and a 3.34 ERA this season and who is coming off a complete game when he allowed just one hit in a 1-0 win over the Houston Astros.
The pitcher is 3-0 in his last five starts and he has a 1.34 ERA in those games, but his four previous games against San Francisco has seen him finish with extremely good or extremely bad numbers.
Head to Head
San Francisco lead the 2012 season series 5-2 with eleven games left to play.
The Giants are 3-1 at home against San Diego this season and have improved to 7-1 in their last eight here against the Padres.
San Francisco are 30-19 at home this season, San Diego are 19-28 on the road.
Prediction
I like San Francisco's chances to win this game by a couple of runs tonight and that is what I will be backing.
They have the edge on the mound, although Edinson Volquez has been pitching very well in his last few starts for the Padres.
However, the Giants batting line up have begun to drive in runs and that should provide the difference of the two teams and so the 2.30 that the Giants win by a couple of runs at least is enough for me to take an interest in it happening.
The Pick :
San Francisco Giants 4-1 San Diego Padres
