Game Time:  2:20 PM ET, Thursday, June 16th,  2022 

Venue: Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois

Where to Watch: MLB.tv

DraftKings: Moneyline: 

FanDuel: Moneyline:  Padres -164, Cubs +138; O/U 9.5

PointsBet: Moneyline: 

Opening Lines: 

Padres: 39-24, 2nd place National League West

Cubs: 23-38, 4th place National League Central

All hail the beloved Day Game just as summer becomes unbearably hot!  Game 4 of this series will be at 2 in the afternoon on Thursday.  The excessive heat warning for the Chicago area will still be in effect.  The Padres won game 1 and 2 of the series.  Game 3 is being played (right now) on Wednesday afternoon.  If Game 3 goes for the Padres you should expect a sweep as the numbers once again favor the Padres in Game 4.  Maybe the long hot grind will catch the Padres napping… but until the Cubs find some pitching?... even a napping team could get this one.

A Nationals League matchup between the second best (and it’s real real close) in the NL West and one of the absolute worst teams in the NL Central.  The Padres and Cubs will play Game 1 of this series Monday night (in just a few hours from now).  This prediction focuses on Game 2 of the series.  The prediction simply will not change much from when I gave out the Padres to win Game 1.  The PADRES are a good team with great pitching.  The Cubs are a bad team with bad pitching.  Each game we will have to focus on the specific starting pitching matchup… but still the Padres are going to be the team to win on the moneyline.  A mistake a lot of Gambler’s make is to focus on betting the primetime matchups with the even money lines… Those are fun… They are also a great way to kind of sort of prove how much you know to your buddies.  However, If you want to make $$$ betting you have to dip into these uneven matchups… the ones where the payoff is less on the Money Line but the result is way more statistically predictable.  So you may only pocket 50 or 60 bucks on a $100 bet… do that 30 times a month and you have a steady stream of income.  The bad games with the predictable outcomes tend to be money trees for pro-gamblers.  Follow a handicapper and get the low down on what the predictable outcomes are… and simply cash your bets.

The San Diego Padres have won 7 of their last 10 games.  Going 6 Over and 4 Under.  They went 2-2 against the Colorado Rockies, 2-1 against the New York Mets,  and 3-0 against the Milwaukee Brewers.  The Padres are the real deal… beating the Brewers and the Mets in a 5 out of 6 game stretch should put the whole league on notice.  It should also send the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants back to the drawing board.  The NL West will be tight and entertaining all year. The Padres are an average batting team with some hot pitching helping them along to wins. They could go off like a rocket when Fernando Tatis Jr returns to the line-up in late June.  If he raises the level of batting the Padres will have something very special this season.

The Chicago Cubs have won only 3 of their last 10 games.  They are on a 6 game losing streak.  They are really a bottom of the barrel team.  They are circling the drain.  If this were the NBA we would already be talking about how they are “tanking” and ruining the sport.  They went 0-3 against the New York Yankees, 0-1 against the Baltimore Orioles, 2-3 against the St Louis Cardinals, and 1-0 against the Milwaukee Brewers.  

Al McMordie is 62-35 in his last 97 hoops picks.  With the NBA Finals close to ending, follow BigAL and get a big win to finish the season!  Get Big Al’s picks!!!…They are available right now at the Shop Picks Page,where you can find all of the Best Bets from our champion sports handicappers.  And stay with BigAl.com for all your favorite sports… MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAAF, NCAAB.  Remember winning a wager is more fun than making the wager!

The Padres are 15th in scoring with 4.39 runs per game, 22nd in batting average with .234, 18th in OBP with .311.

The Cubs are 19th in scoring with 4.29 runs per game, 15th in batting average with .242, and 8th in OBP with .320

The Padres pitchers are 5th in ERA with 3.31, 4th in WHIP with 1.13, and the fielders are ranked 1st in (best) in errors with only 21 on the season so far.

The Cubs pitchers are 26th in ERA with 4.59, 22nd in WHIP with 1.32, and 29th in quality starts with only 11.  

Our prediction for Thursday June 16th is…  Padres 5 - Cubs 3

Thursday afternoon.  Game 4.  Easy win for the Padres.  Bank it just as you should have done with Game 1 and 2 (which were predicted here)  Game 3 is playing as I write this… That prediction was also for a Padres win (the numbers are too overwhelming).  So as I said before Keep Pushing the Padres against the Cubs as a sweep is on the way.  

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The Cubs are 7-2 (+8.2 Units) against San Diego over the last 3 seasons.

The Padres are +10.8 Units on the moneyline this year (37-23) 

The Cubs are -10.2 Units on the moneyline this year (23-35)

Padres: LF W. Meyers (knee) Out ** SS Fernando Tatis Jr (wrist) Out ** M. Beaty (shoulder) Out

Cubs: 2B N. Madrigal (groin) Out ** 3B D. Bote (shoulder) Out ** LF S. Suzuki (finger) Out

Padres: RHP Joe Musgrove, 7-0, 1.50 ERA, 72 strikeouts in 72 innings pitched.  0.93 WHIP.  “Moose” is throwing heat.  Good Whip, Good ERA, Perfect record… and he is about to be unleashed on the Chicago Cubs.

Cubs: RHP Matt Swarmer, 1-1, 4.24 ERA, 15 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched.  1.00 WHIP.

The 28 year old has pitched only 17 innings in his career.  The sample size is so small his numbers are meaningless.   Drafted in 2016… He toiled in the Cubs system for 6 long years before getting his Big League call up last month.  I hope he does well, but he is the reason the Over/Under is pegged at 9.5.

Padres: LF Jurickson Profar, 2B Jake Cronenworth, 3B Manny Machado, DH Luke Voit, 1B Eric Hosmer, RF Nomar Mazara, C Jorge Alfaro, CF Trent Grisham, SS Ha-Seong Kim

Cubs: CF Christopher Morel, C Wilson Contreras, DH Ian Happ, 1B Frank Schwindel, 3B Patrick Wisdom, 2B Jonathan Villar, SS Nico Hoerner, RF Jason Heyward, LF Rafael Ortega

Padres: Bob Melvin… Who will be played by Ryan Christenson as Bob is on the Covid List

Cubs: David Ross

 

Sunny, very Sunny.  Hot very hot.  The temperature will only be 93* with 35% humidity… but it’ll feel like 93* with 35% humidity.  A tired nation l;ooks to the MLB to pass a dome rule… seriously it’s time.  I shouldn’t have to die of sunstroke just because I wanted to take my kid to a ball game.