Padres vs. D’Backs
Recommendation: Padres -156
Don’t look now but the Padres have won 16 of 19 home gamesand are 7-3 in their last 10 overall. The Friars have also won 3 in a row overthe D’Backs, who have lost 12 of 16, including 8 in a row on the road. So wehave two teams headed in completely opposite directions for tonight’s matchup.
Josh Collmenter has put together a few quality starts in arow. But if you’ve seen this guy pitch you know that his stuff isn’t anythingspecial. He tops out at 90 mph on the gun and throws straight as a line. He’shad success by hitting his spots and mixing up his pitches. The problem withguys like Collmenter is that once a team has seen you it becomes very hard to putforth another great outing against them. The Padres just saw this guy August 22ndso he’ll definitely be fresh in their memory.
Andrew Cashner has gotten better in each start since comingoff the DL in August. He’s given up 2 runs and 1 run respectively in each startand we’ve seen flashes of the dominance that Cashner provided us with at thebeginning of the season. He certainly has much better stuff than Collmenter. We’llside with the team that’s hitting and playing well vs. the team that’s headedin the wrong direction. Take the Padres.