Game Time: 9:40 pm ET, Thursday, August 18th, 2022 

Venue: Petco Park, San Diego, California

Where to Watch:  MLB.tv

DraftKings: Nationals +310, Padres -385; O/U 8

Caesars:  Nationals +310, Padres -400; O/U 8

PointsBet: 

 

Nationals: 39-79, 5th place (last in division and conference) NL East

Padres: 65-54, 2nd place NL West

A National League matchup between two teams that are seriously hurting.  The Washington Nationals are the worst thing going in the National League.  They are a billboard for “allowing it all to slip away”!  They won the 2019 World Series for Criminey Sake!  They had a stacked roster… then like the slow motion memory of an instant car crash… The Nationals lost key guys, made trades for the future, and now find themselves at the bottom of a well.  Some of it may have something to do with pitchers getting huge contracts and then falling apart physically… but some of the horribleness is simple bad faith team building.  If they end up a winning team 5 years from now it will be a miracle.  The San Diego Padres recently got kicked where the sun don’t shine very hard and very suddenly.  The San Diego Padres made a great trade to land Juan Soto from the Nationals and pair him with Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis JR (just as Fernando was supposed to return from injury.  It was a smart move… The Padres could have finished the season with the only top-three in the batting line-up that would have rivaled the Dodgers top-three.  Then the noticeably swollen Fernando Tatis Jr tested positive for steroids… steroids he needed to kill ringworm… but steroids nonetheless.  Fernando is done for the season.  The Padres now have to make a 400-500 million dollar decade long commitment to Juan Soto without ever knowing if the three guys will fit together enough to make MLB magic happen.    The Padres still have Machado and Soto playing together… but they don’t and won’t have the complete pipe dream until next season. The Padres are 17 games behind the Dodgers… There are plenty of games left, but not a lot of momentum in the Padres favor.

The Washington Nationals have won only 3 of their last 10 games.  Their batting ain’t good and their pitching is the worst… so 3 wins over 10 could be seen as a successful stretch.  No one believes the Nationals will do anything other than simple experimentation with the rest of the season. Guys will get called up, random guys will rest for no reason… The bullpen will be full of no names looking to secure a spot on the team.  And if any of the starters display any real talent… they will be traded away in the off-season.  They went 1-1 versus the Chicago Cubs, They went 1-2 against THESE San Diego Padres, 1-2 against the Chicago Cubs again, and 0-2 against the Philadelphia Phillies.

The San Diego Padres have won only 4 of their last 10 games.  That is not a good pace for a team mired in 2nd place in the NL West behind the league leading Los Angeles Dodgers.  Although the Padres have Machado and Soto, two of the league’s best batters, they are barely above average on offense.  The Padres pitchers however are top-ten in multiple categories.  This team won’t get it done this season, but can have a bright future if they are willing to kick the spending into a higher gear next season.  They went 0-2 against the Miami Marlins, 2-1 against THESE Washington Nationals, 2-1 against the San Francisco Giants, and 0-2 against the Los Angeles Dodgers (⅔ of a Dodgers SWEEP).

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The Nationals are 26th in scoring with 3.80 runs per game, 12th in batting average with .249, and 14th in OBP with .315.

The Padres are 15th in scoring with 4.43, 16th in batting average with .242, and 9th in OBP with .319.

The Nationals pitching is 30th in ERA with 5.28 (the entire team averages what would be the worst starting pitcher on most teams), 30th in WHIP with 1.48, and the fielders are 28th in errors with 76 on the season so far.

The Padres pitching is 10th in ERA with 3.78, 7th in WHIP with 1.21, and the fielders are 5th in errors with 52 on the season so far.

 

Our prediction for Thursday, August 18th is…  Padres 5 - Nationals 2

 

The Padres should get this game easily.  Lots of teams are going off on the Nationals… but in this case the numbers back-up the Padres in every category.  No matter how bad the Padres have been lately.  The bet is for the Padres on the moneyline.  However the pay off at -310 will be ridiculously small.   

 

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Nationals: SS L. Garcia (groin) Out, SS C. Kieboom (elbow) Out ** Plus 5 guys considered starting pitchers… including the most infamous, Stephen Strasburgh.

Padres: SS Fernando Tatis JR (steroids/suspension) Out ** and 5 relief pitchers.

Nationals: RHP Anabel Sanchez, 0-5, 7.20 ERA, 22 strikeouts in 30 innings pitched.  1.60 WHIP.  This 38 year old simply no longer belongs in the majors.  The Nationals do not care… both Machado and Soto will hit big off of this meatball machine.

Padres: RHP Yu Darvish, 10-6, 3.40 ERA, 141 strikeouts in 140 innings pitched.  1.01 WHIP.  The Padres are simply handing Yu a terribly easy win for his record.  It makes us all feel good because everyone likes Yu.

Nationals: CF Victor Robles, RF Joey Meneses, 1B Luke Voit, DH Nelson Cruz, LF Lane Thomas, 2B Cesar Hernandez, SS CJ Abrams, C Tres Barrere, 3B Ildemaro Vargas

Padres:  LF Jurickson Profar, RF Juan Soto, 3B Manny Machado, DH Josh Bell, 2B Jake Cronenworth, 1B Wil Myers, CF Trent Grisham, SS Ha-Seong Kim, C Jorge Alfaro, 

Nationals: Dave Martinez

Padres: Bob “ringworm is a real problem” Melvin

Partly Cloudy. 79*, Humidity 68%, Wind 11 mph.  Precipitation 10% chance… though not likely.  San Diego weather is perfect for baseball this time of year.  Mild, cool at night but not chilly.  The sheer amount of humidity in the air is no fun… but still you can take a quick trip to San Diego’s little Italy for the best pizza in the country… Yeah Brooklyn, I said it.