MLB Betting Free Picks: San Diego Padres at Arizona Diamondbacks

Added on Aug 29, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

Plenty of baseball betting opportunities in the National League on Monday as the San Diego Padres try to regain their winning ways on the road against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Padres had their hands full over the weekend with the Philadelphia Phillies, but with San Francisco unable to gain any momentum still has a sizable lead atop the NL West. Arizona is just playing out the string mired in the NL West basement 25 games off the pace.

San Diego Padres (LeBlanc) at Arizona Diamondbacks (Saunders)
August 30, 2010—6:40 PM Pacific

While the Padres were struggling at home against the Philadelphia Phillies they got a little help from this Arizona team, who was up in the Bay Area giving the San Francisco Giants all they could handle. Now the Padres will hope to get their winning momentum back against a Diamondbacks team who’ve been a huge money loser all season long. Arizona was 52-79 -22.4 units on the season (pending Sunday’s game at San Francisco) and the Padres have cleaned up on the road in 2010. San Diego 38-27 +18.75 units away from Petco Park this year, and have taken care of business against the Diamondbacks with a 8-4 record in head to head play this season.

This has been a season that Arizona starter Joe Saunders would like to forget. The veteran southpaw checks in with a 4.76 ERA, and his teams have lost 16 of his 26 starts this year including 9 of 14 at home. Saunders started the season in Anaheim with the L.A. Angels and his fortunes haven’t improved in the National League. Heading into this game the D-backs have lost his last four starts, and five of his six assignments since he joined the team. The Padres got a look at him just five days ago and they teed off on Saunders, scoring six earned runs against him in a 9-3 loss.

Wade LeBlanc was on the other half of that matchup and he pitched well in earning the win. San Diego has won 3 of LeBlanc’s last four starts, and whether it’s against Saunders or the D-backs bullpen the Padres should have no trouble scoring runs against one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball. Diamondbacks have a team ERA of 5.00 and a bullpen ERA of 5.93. San Diego gets back on the winning track in this series starting with a win in Monday’s matchup.

Bet San Diego (LeBlanc) -130 over Arizona (Saunders)