Game Time:  7:45 PM ET, Tuesday, May 31st,  2022 

Venue: Busch Stadium, St Louis, Missouri

Where to Watch: MLB.TV

DraftKings: Moneyline: Padres +100, Cardinals -120; O/U 8.5

 Caesars: Moneyline:  

PointsBet: Moneyline: Padres +105, Cardinals -125; O/U 8.5

Padres: 30-18, 2nd place NL West

Cardinals: 27-21, 2nd place NL Central

This is Game 2 of the matchup we are focusing on.  Game 1 was played in the early afternoon in a hot and humid stadium on a packed Memorial Day. The Cardinals beat the Padres 6-3

The San Diego Padres have won 6 of their last 10 games.  2 Over, 7 Under, and 1 Push.  The highlight of the month for San Diego was going 3-0 in a sweep of the San Francisco Giants.  The lowlight was going 0-2 while being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in a 2-game trip to Wisconsin.  They also went 1-1 against the Philadelphia Phillies and 1-1 against the Pittsburgh Pirates (with still another Pirates game to play tonight).  A bonus for the Padres is they seem to love the road games… having gone 17-7 on the moneyline on the road for the season… AND 18-6 ATS while on the road.  It’s rare to find a team that is safe to bet ATS in baseball let alone on the road!  If they do go without Manny Machado in this game they will be at a disadvantage.  Manny leads the team in homers, OPS, and Batting Average.  

The St Louis Cardinals have won 6 of their last 10 games.  6 Over, 3 Under, and 1 Push.  They went 0-2 to the New York Mets, 3-0 (sweep) against the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-1 against the Toronto Blue Jays, and 2-1 against the Milwaukee Brewers (with 1 game against Milwaukee left to play Sunday afternoon).  St Louis’s batting numbers are impressive and Paul Goldschmidt is the real deal as he leads the team in Home Runs and OPS.  Paul gets plenty of help from 3B Nolan Arenado, the former Colorado Rockies player who signed for big money to bat cleanup for the Cards.  Nolan is really struggling at the plate right now as he has gone 0-13 in the last 4 games from the plate… no hits… but he has been walked 4 times.  He will be looking to break that slump sooner rather than later.

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The Padres are 11th in runs with 4.38 per game, and 22nd in batting average with .228, and 14th in OBP with .311.

The Cardinals are 4th in MLB in scoring with 4.85 runs per game, 6th in batting average with .254, and 6th in OBP with .322.

The Padres pitchers are 10th in ERA with 3.53, 7th in WHIP with 1.15.  Padres fielder’s are on point while ranking 1st in errors with only 14 on the season.

The Cardinals pitchers are 12th in team ERA with 3.70, 15th in WHIP with 1.27.  Their defensive weakness are the fielding errors… where they rank 16th having committed 24 on the young season so far.

Our prediction for Tuesday May 31st is… Padres 5 - Cardinals 3

The Padres dropped Game 1 but will have their revenge in Game 2. This is a pretty evenly matched series and you should expect the Cardinals to be a bit tired after having Memorial Day BBQ’s to get to after the game.  They are at home after all.  Not kidding… long weekend with a holiday day game and the home team will be hosting family and juggling responsibilities.  While the away team will simply be partying at the hotel bar.   

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St Louis is 3-0 against San Diego in St Louis the last 3 seasons.

7 of 9 games in this series have gone Over the last 3 seasons. (Over= +5.0 Units).

San Diego is 6-1 on the road when the total is 8 to 8.5.

Padres: LF M. Beatty (shoulder) Out ** SS Fernando Tatis JR (wrist) Out ** 

Cardinals: RF T. O’Neil (shoulder( Out ** RF D. Carlson (hammy) Out

Padres: LHP Blake Snell, 0-2, 6.00 ERA, 12 strikeouts in 9 innings pitched.  Blake has been working his way back into form after an injury.  His career numbers are better than his current numbers.  He will have a short time on the mound if he does not improve on his current ERA.

Dodgers: RHP Adam Wainwright 5-4, 3.12 ERA, 38 strikeouts in 52 innings pitched.  1.29 WHIP.  His nickname is Uncle Charlie and he has had a long career… super productive too.  His debut in 2005 has led to a career mark of 189-109.  This season he is barely above .500 and his WHIP is growing.  He is exactly the type of guy the Dodgers line-up was built to shell the outfield wall off of.

Padres: 2B -1B Jake Cronenworth, 3B Manny Machado, DH Jurickson Profar, RF Will Myers, 1B Luke Voit, C Austin Nola, SS Ha-Seong Kim, CF Trent Grisham, LF Jose Azocar

Cardinals: SS Tommy Edman, 2B Nolan Gorman, DH Paul Goldschmidt, 3B Nolan Arenado , 1B Brendan Donovan, RF Lars Nootbar, C Yadier Molina, LF Corey Dickerson, CF Harrison Bader

Padres: Bob Melvin

Cardinals: Oliver Marmol,  Oliver was the bench coach and promoted to take the job left vacant after the Cardinals broke Mike Shildt’s heart by firing him.

Sunny 88*.  Humidity at 42% for that extra swampy feeling.  Wind at 16 mph.  The day after Memorial Day is always a fun game for the die-hards… The holiday bozos are gone and the real game going public has returned.  This type of crowd knows when to cheer and jeer… and what is actually going on in the minutia of the game.