MLB Friday April 5th Padres at Giants Betting Preview
Second Series of the Year Already For NL West Foes
Not that they weren’t already familiar with each other with each playing in the NL West but the Friday April 5th Padres at Giants betting matchup will be the second consecutive weekend these two clubs have faced each other. We didn’t learn a whole lot at Petco Park from March 28th-31st, with the four game series ending in a 2-2 split.
San Diego (4-5) has to be a little disappointed with a 3-4 mark during their first home stand of 2024, but that’s still better than the current four game losing streak San Francisco (2-5) is on. The Giants do play their home opener on Friday afternoon, possibly the main reason why they are narrow -116 favorites (SD -102).
Why the Padres Have Value on Friday
San Diego racked up some offense last weekend against the Giants, scoring 28 runs over the four game series. It was pitching that obviously did them in, suffering 8-3 and 9-6 losses at Petco and only managing a split even while favored in each of the four games.
The Padres hope their pitching is a little tighter in Friday’s home opener with Dylan Cease making his second start of the season. Cease was acquired in an offseason trade with the White Sox and was a runner-up for the 2022 AL Cy Young award so San Diego likes his upside. Cease allowed just 2 ER in his Padres debut against these Giants last Saturday, but his offense scored him 0 runs and he took the loss in what ended up being a 9-6 San Francisco win.
San Diego scored just 7 runs in their most recent three game series with the Cardinals, but they ended up getting a 3-2 win on Wednesday in the finale of the three game set. After an off day Thursday, Fernando Tatis, Jr. will look to stay warm (10 hits in 33 AB) as will Luis Campusano who already has 12 hits and 7 RBI in his first 30 AB of the season.
Why the Giants Have Value on Friday
It’s been an interesting start to the season for San Francisco, going on the road for their first seven games but all in Southern California in series’ against these Padres and then a sweep at Chavez Ravine against the Dodgers this week. The Giants are already four games back from L.A. in the NL West, so SF really needs to take advantage of playing 16 of their next 22 games at Oracle Park.
Friday’s home opener is a rematch of Cease vs. Jordan Hicks from last weekend, and Hicks got out of the gate in dazzling fashion for San Francisco. The former Toronto pitcher threw 5.0 IP of shutout ball to pick up his first win as a member of the Giants. That was just the 9th career start for the long time reliever, so SF may have stumbled upon a gem here.
The Giants offense has been fairly consistent over their first seven games of the season, scoring 5.14 runs/game which is in the top end of MLB. San Francisco might have some pop this season, with Michael Conforto already having 3 HRs while Matt Chapman and Jorge Soler have each gone deep twice in the first week of 2024.
Free April 5th Padres at Giants Betting Pick
Hicks looked great last week for the Giants, but he is a long time reliever with limited starting experience. Cease should be his usual dialed in self on Friday so the real question is what kind of boost the Giants get with this being their home opener? Have to go with the slightly lower price and the proven commodity in Cease for this meeting.
Free Pick: Padres -102
