San Diego Padres vs. Colorado Rockies Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 6/18/2022

Time: 9:10 p.m. ET

Venue: Coors Field, Denver, CO

Where to watch: Bally Sports San Diego, AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain

DraftKings: Padres -140, Rockies +120

BetMGM: Padres -140, Rockies +120

Caesars: Padres -140, Rockies +120

Padres: 41-25

Rockies: 28-37

Friday was a good start for the Colorado Rockies in their series against the San Diego Padres, winning 10-4 and getting that much-needed offensive output via the deep ball. Particularly, CJ Cron homered twice, including a 486-foot blast that stopped the Padres’ fifth-inning potential rally.

Cron, the Rockies’ top power hitter, seemed to get his mojo back after a strong start to the season. He’s since cooled, but the two-homer game is surely a good way to get back on track. Cron finished 3 for 5 with five RBI and pushing his average back to .291.

"I was just trying to put a good swing on a ball in the zone and fortunately enough, usually when I get them they go out, so I got to try to make that solid contact more often here and try to keep going," Cron said.

It was the second multi-homer game of the season for Cron, hitting the second longest blast of the year, also at Coors Field held by Miami’s Jesus Sanchez.

Meanwhile, it hasn’t happened a lot, but the Rockies got a good outing from Kyle Freeland, going seven innings with six of them scoreless. 

"It's great," Freeland said. "It allows you and our starting pitchers to breathe a little easier and take a little bit of pressure off us to where we can go out there and really work, just fill up the strike zone and get quick outs."

Manny Machado and Luke Voit had RBI doubles for the first-place Padres, who I don’t think we’ve had the chance to talk about them nearly enough as it pertains to top teams in MLB. Mostly because I think we all expect the Dodgers to surpass them at some point, but lest we forget that they have been able to do this without Fernando Tatis Jr. That’s why Machado, batting .327 this year and finally living up to that contract after leaving Baltimore.

All in all, the Padres could use some more help in that regard. Jace Cronenworth went 2 for 3, but is batting just .251, and Jorge Alfaro isn’t a full-time catcher batting a shade around .280. But MacKenzie Gore lasted only four innings and gave up eight runs while walking three. Not his best performance.

“I felt good tonight, but I made a lot of bad pitches,” Gore said. “I definitely felt better than the last start, but just made a lot of bad pitches.”

I think it’s fair to say the Padres got off to a bad start on Friday, but should be able to bounce back in a good way Saturday for this second matchup. This park is tailored for the Padres to get things going via the bat, and Machado will get his revenge on this day. Padres win 7-4

Padres are 24-11 on the road this season.

Padres are 20-27 playing on Saturday the past three seasons.

Rockies are 56-79 against division opponents the past three seasons.

Rockies are 34-25 the past three seasons at home when the line is between +125 and -125.

Padres:
Jurickson Profar (S) LF
Jake Cronenworth (L) 2B
Manny Machado (R) DH
Luke Voit (R) 1B
Jorge Alfaro (R) C
Ha-Seong Kim (R) SS
Trent Grisham (L) CF
Jose Azocar (R) RF
Sergio Alcantara (S) 3B
SP - Nick Martinez

Rockies:
Connor Joe (R) LF
Yonathan Daza (R) CF
Charlie Blackmon (L) DH
C.J. Cron (R) 1B
Brendan Rodgers (R) 2B
Jose Iglesias (R) SS
Brian Serven (R) C
Randal Grichuk (R) RF
Alan Trejo (R) 3B
SP - German Marquez