Baseball Betting Picks: San Diego Padres at Washington Nationals

Added on May 15, 2012 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

Six daytime start baseball games going on Tuesday and we’ll take a look at a matchup between the San Diego Padres and the surprising Washington Nationals. Behind their impressive pitching staff and strong home field performance the Nats currently lead the National League East though the Atlanta Braves are nipping at their heels just 1/2 game behind.

San Diego Padres at Washington Nationals
Tuesday, May 15 2012 10:10 AM Pacific

The Nationals are huge home favorites in this game as they are every time that the phenomenal Steven Strasburg takes the mound. Strasburg has come back from ‘Tommy John’ elbow surgery looking better than ever and is likely the favorite for the NL Cy Young award at this point. Strasburg sports a 1.64 ERA and has rung up 54 strikeouts on the season against just 10 walks. If there’s a rap on Strasburg–and this one isn’t really his fault–is that he doesn’t go deep into games averaging just over 6 innings per assignment. That’s because the Nationals have him on a strict pitch count at this stage of his rehab as to prevent overdue strain on his rebuilt elbow.

San Diego has struggled mightily this season and especially on the road where they’re 3-10. They’ve received a relatively decent effort from their pitching staff but their offense has been lacking. This notwithstanding, they’ve done better against RHP than in any other situation and have posted a respectable 3.7 runs per game. Washington’s offense hasn’t been overly productive in the early stages of the season either, but they are starting to show a little more life–the Nats have averaged 4 runs per game in the last week of action so it could be that their bats are starting to wake up as the weather gets warmer.

No real interest in laying the big price on Strasburg, primarily due to the frequent struggles of the Nationals bullpen. The Washington relievers have a 3.71 ERA overall and 6 blown saves to their credit. Instead, we’ll look to play against public perception and play this game Over the extremely low total of 6. Despite his impressive numbers, 3 of 6 Straburg starts this year have gone Over the total including 2 of 3 at home. Factor the so so numbers of Padres’ starter Anthony Bass into the mix and we like our chances of getting enough runs across the plate to make this play work.

Bet Washington/San Diego Over 6 -110