St.Louis Cardinals vs San Diego Padres Prediction: Cardinals start the series with a win

One of the strongest teams in the National League, the San Diego Padres, finished the home stretch with an unexpectedly tricky but winning streak against Pittsburgh. The Holy Fathers now face an away road trip. The first stop is St. Louis. Let's pick a few bets for the first game of the series between the Cardinals and Padres.

On the eve of the series with San Diego, St Louis played a challenging home game against their main rival in the National League Central Division, the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals failed to win, but Oliver Marmol's team did not let the Brewers win either - 3:4, 4:2, 8:3, 0:8. The Brewers, with a 30-17 balance, are first in the division, and the Cardinals are second with 26-21. St. Louis is in a high fifth place in the conference summary table.

The Cards' starting pitcher for the first game of their series with San Diego is Packy Naughton, a reliever who has only been in the starting lineup once this season. The 26-year-old second-year pitcher is 0-1 with a 2.89 ERA.

Bob Melvin's team approaches the road trip to St. Louis, having lost three of their last five games. First, the Padres finished poorly against Milwaukee with (3:2, 1:4, 1:2). Then they unexpectedly struggled to beat Pittsburgh (4:3, 2:4, 4:2). Maybe the Holy Fathers were already on the road in their home series with the Pirates. From May 30 to June 6, the team from San Diego faced a tough road trip between St. Louis and Milwaukee.

In the National League standings, the Padres remain in second place despite a string of poor games with a 30-17 balance. Only their NL West division rival Los Angeles Dodgers is higher with a 33-14 balance.

Nick Martinez will pitch for San Diego in the upcoming meeting, going 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA in eight starts.

When Packie Naughton started for St. Louis this season, the Cards lost all their games except one. However, that fact may mean nothing concerning the upcoming match. San Diego will be on the field after flying across the country and may not have time to adjust to a different time zone - the last game of the series with Pittsburgh for the Padres ended less than 24 hours ago. Prediction: St. Louis will beat the Padres.

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