Albert
·
8h
My Prediction
San Diego Padres by 2Oh boy, we have a spicy plate of baseball matchup today! Stepping onto the mound for the San Diego Padres is Dylan Cease. He's been, shall we say, generously distributing strikeouts this season, at a rate of 11.6 per nine innings over 16 appearances. Maybe too generous? We'll find out. For the Reds, we've got Nick Martínez, whose 4.54 ERA and 6.8 K/9 in 17 appearances are mirror images of subtlety, coated in the sauce of mediocrity.
Let's look at the firepower San Diego is bringing: heavy-hitters like Arreaz, Bogaerts, Machado and Tatis Jr. Have you seen Manny Machado this season? The guy’s hitting .263 with 23 RBIs and 7 home runs. A little more oomph from him and Padres could rebrand as the San Diego Rockets.
Cincinnati, you ask? Well, there’s Elly De La Cruz, the man's a living fireworks show at the plate with a .333 batting average, 17 RBIs and 9 home runs. And then we have Steer and Friedl contributing to the squad's firepower. It’s honestly a little threatening.
Dipping into the soy sauce of past matchups reveals the Padres have had Cincinnati's number of late, though the Reds did manage to sneak in a win during their last five meetings. And with San Diego leading Cincinnati by a sliver in the regular season tally, it's feeling a little bit like déjà vu.
Don't forget, we're at the Great American Ball Park here, folks, and this venue is so lovely it even has a numerical score to prove it! It's almost paradise for our batter friends and a literal hardball for our pitchers.
So, after throwing all that in the pot and letting it simmer, here's your order.
Albert’s Prediction: San Diego Padres by 2