Giants vs. Padres MLB Picks and Predictions

Oh, what a tangled web the San Diego Padres have spun in advance of their series against the San Francisco Giants, which gets underway on Tuesday’s sports betting calendar.

San Francisco Giants vs. San Diego Padres

Tuesday, September 21, 2021 – 10:10 PM ET at Petco Park

That web is also a little sticky for San Francisco as the Giants begin this series with only a 1-game advantage over the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL West crown. One of those teams is going to have to play a winner-take-all single game in the NLWC round to continue on in October. San Diego was right there in the wild card mix a month ago, but the Padres have fallen well off the pace with the season quickly drawing to a close.

Unfortunately, online betting sites have been unable to hang numbers for the series opener on Tuesday due to uncertainty surrounding San Diego’s pitcher. San Francisco will turn to Kevin Gausman (14-6, 2.78) to begin the series, the first of two remaining between the Giants and Padres, and the chalk should be on the visitors when lines are released.

https://youtu.be/RNGj8DNvBBM?t=816

Giants 6-0 on Road in September

San Francisco will be scoreboard watching tonight, and focused on the Dodgers and Colorado Rockies who get underway in Denver about an hour-and-a-half before the Giants take the field in San Diego. Colorado is the next stop for the Giants on this road trip, before coming home to close the season against the Diamondbacks and Padres.

Calling it “the coolest thing I've ever done in my entire career,” Gausman played batting hero for the Giants last Friday with an 11th-inning sac fly to score the decisive run in a win over the Atlanta Braves. Gausman has pretty much been a pitching hero for San Francisco all season with the Giants winning 19 of his 11 starts, all while he has recorded an ERA good enough to rank among the top 10 in the majors.

Gausman got knocked around by the Padres the night before his hitting heroics, taking the loss in a contest San Francisco closed as -175 chalk at top sportsbooks. He allowed four runs over five innings, definitely his worst effort against San Diego this season after the first three saw Gausman surrender three runs over 19 innings. The Giants won all three, two of those taking place at Petco Park.

A Sour Close to ‘21 for Tatis, Friars

Not saying the wheels fell off for San Diego last weekend, but the Padres’ bandwagon is certainly in need of a realignment after frustrations boiled over in the dugout between Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. on Saturday. Tatis is the face of the franchise when he’s wowing fans with homers and bat flips, but he's not so popular when he’s throwing tantrums and dropping pop flies.

Joe Musgrove (11-9, 2.99) lines up to pitch Tuesday, even getting an extra day of rest since his last start, so it’s a little strange why San Diego hasn’t announced him to begin the series. It could be due to Musgrove facing the Giants last Wednesday in San Francisco, and even though it was a win, it wasn’t one of his best outings of 2021. Musgrove served up a pair of homers and surrendering three runs over six innings in San Diego’s 6-3 win in a contest that featured some tight MLB betting odds. Musgrove was also knocked around in back-to-back starts against the Giants back in May, both of those 7-1 losses coming against Gausman.

San Diego’s rotation is very much in flux, but the Padres are hopeful of getting both Blake Snell (groin) and Chris Paddack (elbow) back during this series. Neither is eligible to return for this game, broadening the mystery why Musgrove has not already been announced for Tuesday.

Joe Musgrove #44 of the San Diego Padres. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images/AFP

‘Over’ Has Cashed in 8 of 13 Clashes This Year

While it has been a disappointing and frustrating close to the season for the Padres, they have held their own against a Giants team that owns the best record in the majors. San Francisco owns a slim 7-6 edge in the seasons series, and the clubs are 3-3 in the half-dozen matchups in San Diego. You have to go back more than four months to find the last series at Petco Park where totals have run 2-4 O/U.

Everything is fine on the weather front, as to be expected in San Diego. It’s very difficult to carve a free MLB pick into stone with the pitching situation such an unknown, but the ‘under’ has my initial attention.

MLB Pick: (visit our Sportsbook Review)

*The pick reflects the line at the moment the writer made the play, the odds at the beginning of this article show the live line movement. Since the lines might vary, don’t forget to refer back to our live odds.