Game Time:  2:15 PM ET, Monday, May 30th,  2022 

Venue: Busch Stadium, St Louis, Missouri

Where to Watch: MLB.TV 

DraftKings: Moneyline: N/A; O/U 8.5

 Caesars: Moneyline:  

PointsBet: Moneyline: Padres -110, Cardinals -110; O/U 8.5

Padres: 29-17, 2nd place NL West

Cardinals: 26-20, 2nd place NL Central

An MLB Memorial Day National League Matchup between the 2nd best in the west and the 2nd best in the Central.  The Padres and Cardinals are playing solid baseball at the moment and they will clash in a mid-afternoon holiday classic.  The San Diego Padres have been riding the hot hitting of Manny Machado (the $300 million dollar man), but he is listed as questionable with an elbow injury.  The St Louis Cardinals have been relying on the big bat of Paul Goldschmidt who most certainly will be in the DH spot batting 3rd.  The pitching matchup is important… but with both clubs averaging over 4 runs per game… the bats need to stay hot for run support.  

The San Diego Padres have won 6 of their last 10 games.  2 Over, 7 Under, and 1 Push.  The highlight of the month for San Diego was going 3-0 in a sweep of the San Francisco Giants.  The lowlight was going 0-2 while being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in a 2-game trip to Wisconsin.  They also went 1-1 against the Philadelphia Phillies and 1-1 against the Pittsburgh Pirates (with still another Pirates game to play tonight).  A bonus for the Padres is they seem to love the road games… having gone 17-7 on the moneyline on the road for the season… AND 18-6 ATS while on the road.  It’s rare to find a team that is safe to bet ATS in baseball let alone on the road!  If they do go without Manny Machado in this game they will be at a disadvantage.  Manny leads the team in homers, OPS, and Batting Average.  

The St Louis Cardinals have won 6 of their last 10 games.  6 Over, 3 Under, and 1 Push.  They went 0-2 to the New York Mets, 3-0 (sweep) against the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-1 against the Toronto Blue Jays, and 2-1 against the Milwaukee Brewers (with 1 game against Milwaukee left to play Sunday afternoon).  St Louis’s batting numbers are impressive and Paul Goldschmidt is the real deal as he leads the team in Home Runs and OPS.  Paul gets plenty of help from 3B Nolan Arenado, the former Colorado Rockies player who signed for big money to bat cleanup for the Cards.  Nolan is really struggling at the plate right now as he has gone 0-13 in the last 4 games from the plate… no hits… but he has been walked 4 times.  He will be looking to break that slump sooner rather than later.

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The Padres are 11th in runs with 4.38 per game, and 22nd in batting average with .228, and 14th in OBP with .311.

The Cardinals are 4th in MLB in scoring with 4.85 runs per game, 6th in batting average with .254, and 6th in OBP with .322.

The Padres pitchers are 10th in ERA with 3.53, 7th in WHIP with 1.15.  Padres fielder’s are on point while ranking 1st in errors with only 14 on the season.

The Cardinals pitchers are 12th in team ERA with 3.70, 15th in WHIP with 1.27.  Their defensive weakness are the fielding errors… where they rank 16th having committed 24 on the young season so far.

Our prediction for Monday May 30th is… Padres 5 - Cardinals 4

We will keep riding the Padres stellar road betting record.  We will not bet ATS as the moneyline will be a safe return with two evenly matched clubs.  The pitching advantage in this game is not readily apparent as the Cardinals have not made their selection.  The prediction stands regardless of the choice… as they have a couple top guys who simply will not have enough days of rest to start this one.  

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The Padres are 6-1 when on the road in a game where the total is set at 8 - 8.5.
The Cardinals are 73-56 (+18 Units) when the money line is +125 to -125 the last 3 years.
The Cardinals are 3-0 against the Padres in St Louis over the last 3 seasons.

Padres: LF M. Beatty (shoulder) Out ** SS Fernando Tatis JR (wrist) Out ** 

Cardinals: RF T. O’Neil (shoulder( Out ** RF D. Carlson (hammy) Out

Padres: RHP Nick Martinez 2-2, 3.86 ERA, 41 strikeouts in 39 innings pitched.  1.36 WHIP.  Nick is a middle of the road guy for the Padres.  The thinking in starting him in a new series is to sucker the Cardinals into blowing an ACE during a home game on Memorial Day.  The Cardinals won’t fall for it… and will likely find someone in the rotation at Nick’s level.

The Cardinals:  TBD.  The Cardinals have not decided yet and we will update this space when they do.   

Padres: 2B -1B Jake Cronenworth, 3B Manny Machado, DH Jurickson Profar, RF Will Myers, 1B Luke Voit, C Austin Nola, SS Ha-Seong Kim, CF Trent Grisham, LF Jose Azocar

Cardinals: SS Tommy Edman, 2B Nolan Gorman, DH Paul Goldschmidt, 3B Nolan Arenado , 1B Brendan Donovan, RF Lars Nootbar, C Yadier Molina, LF Corey Dickerson, CF Harrison Bader

Padres: Bob Melvin

Cardinals: Oliver Marmol,  Oliver was the bench coach and promoted to take the job left vacant after the Cardinals broke Mike Shildt’s heart by firing him.

Mostly Sunny.  89* A Memorial Day Mid-afternoon matchup.  Plenty of hot dogs and beer to go around.  18 mph winds will add a little relief to the oppressive sunshine… if not a little swirl on pop-ups.  The 50% humidity will provide a layer of resistance in the air that will drop balls that are not cleanly hit off the bat’s sweet spot.