The Colorado Rockies take on the San Diego Padres. Check out our MLB odds series for our Rockies Padres prediction and pick.
Well, well, well. How quickly everything can change in baseball and sports. Juan Soto and Josh Bell have had their introductory press conferences as members of the San Diego Padres. They will be playing in this game as the Padres begin their attempt to win the first World Series in franchise history. The Padres and general manager A.J. Preller pulled off an amazing trade deadline flurry of deals. They got Josh Hader and Brandon Drury in separate smaller deals, and they still had more than enough resources to complete a mega-deal with the Washington Nationals for Soto, a generational talent, plus a very good accompanying player (Bell) who is also young and talented. Many baseball experts would tell you that the Padres now have the best roster in the National League. They won't catch the Dodgers, but they could beat them in a short playoff series. The hype is only beginning in San Diego, where October expectations have skyrocketed.
Let's now go to the pitching matchup: Chad Kuhl takes the rubber for the Rockies, while Blake Snell gets the call for the Padres.
Chad Kuhl has a 4.59 ERA. Some pitchers with bloated ERAs are consistently mediocre. Kuhl has a different profile. He is all over the place: occasionally great, sometimes decent, and sometimes really bad. Kuhl's April ERA was just under two runs. His May ERA was over 5.15. His June ERA was 3.38. His July ERA was a stratospheric 8.71.
Just look at Kuhl's June starts. He was horrible in July, but June showed the best and worst of him. He threw a complete-game shutout on June 27 and six scoreless innings on June 3, but in between, he gave up 12 runs in 14 1/3 innings across three starts. Maybe he is going to pitch poorly here, but once in awhile, he dazzles. Beware of that.
Blake Snell has a 4.43 ERA. However, before you jump to the conclusion that he isn't pitching well, do realize that he was bad earlier in the year but has really improved in July. Whereas Kuhl significantly regressed in the past month, Snell significantly improved. In four of his last five outings, he has allowed no more than one run. Interestingly, in those same four starts, the only run he allowed in each of those games came on a solo home run. This means that Snell is consistently pitching out of jams and is not allowing base hits with runners in scoring position. This is the guy the Padres hoped to see in 2022. If he remains this good, the World Series odds will increase for San Diego.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Rockies-Padres MLB odds.
MLB Odds: Rockies-Padres Odds
Colorado Rockies: +1.5 (+125)
San Diego Padres : -1.5 (-150)
Over: 8.5 (-105)
Under: 8.5 (-115)
Why The Rockies Could Cover the Spread
C.J. Cron of the Rockies has a .471 average with a home run and two doubles in his career against Blake Snell. The Rockies have lost a lot of games this past week, but they still have a winning record — 8-6 — against the Padres in 2022. San Diego's acquisition of Juan Soto will certainly motivate the Rockies to play well. Soto and Josh Bell and Brandon Drury are likely to do well for the Padres, but their first game might involve some butterflies and some nervous swings which lead to a flat Padre performance.
Why The Padres Could Cover the Spread
After struggling for much of the year, Blake Snell has come on strong in his last five starts: a 2.81 ERA, 14 strikeouts per nine innings, and the command on the mound San Diego has been looking for. Everyone is talking about Juan Soto, and Josh Bell plus Brandon Drury also make this lineup better, but Snell pitching well is the best reason to like San Diego in this game. This is not the subpar pitcher from May and June.
Final Rockies-Padres Prediction & Pick
The Padres might be a little jittery with all the hype surrounding them, but Blake Snell is pitching well, and the Padres' inability to beat the Rockies is no longer a talking point after San Diego won three games against Colorado the past two days, both after facing early multi-run deficits. The Padres had already turned things around before the Soto trade. They are a great choice here.
Final Rockies-Padres Prediction & Pick: Padres -1.5
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