MLB Baseball Preview: San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants

The 2013 Major League Baseball season is winding down and we’ll focus on a game between a couple of teams that have been playing respectable baseball in the stretch run. The San Diego Padres have won six of their last 10 games and will head to AT&T Park to take on the San Francisco Giants. The Giants have also won six of ten and have been getting very good fan support in their September games-surprising for a team that underachieved so significantly this season.

In terms of the standings this game is somewhat meaningless-Colorado is almost certain to finish in last place in the NL West-but there’s a pretty strong rivalry between these teams from opposite ends of California. San Diego will start righthander Burch Smith who is starting to show some decent form after a rough start to his Major League career. Burch has a 6.75 ERA in six starts but has posted a 2.00 ERA in his last three starts with the Padres winning two of those games. Like the Giants team as a whole righthander Ryan Vogelsong has endured a disappointing season with a 5.90 ERA and San Francisco has won only 8 of his 18 starts. At home his numbers aren’t much better with a 5.53 ERA though the Giants have split wins and losses in his ten home starts.

Vogelsong’s less than dominating form does give us some good value on the home team, however, and given the strong support of the Giants’ fans we expect them to put up a good showing to end the season. They can still finish with a winning record at home and in a season with few other highlights this would be a positive gesture for the Giants’ fans. This series has really been dominated by the home team this season. In head to head play this season the Giants hold a 9-7 overall advantage but have won five of the six games played at AT&T Park. The Giants have been competitive at home all season and we look for them to end their campaign on a high note. We’ll gladly take a reasonable price on the Giants.

BET SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (VOGELSONG) -130 OVER SAN DIEGO PADRES (SMITH)