Cincinnati Reds at San Francisco Giants Betting Preview/Prop Picks

The Cincinnati Reds are in San Francisco this weekend to face the Giants, and Game 2 of the weekend series will take place on Saturday. Cincinnati picked up a 4-2 win in the series opener and will be looking for a second straight upset win. 

It has been a long year for the Reds, but they have actually started to turn things around after a miserable start. Cincinnati comes into this game with a record of just 24-46, and they have gone 12-23 on the road. 

San Francisco has some serious work to do if they are going to win the NL West for a second straight season. The Giants are just 38-32 overall this season, and they have now dropped four of their last five games. 

The San Francisco Giants are the big betting favorites in this game, with moneyline odds set at -248.

Pitching Still a Problem For Reds

The biggest reason for the miserable start for the Cincinnati Reds is that they just can’t get enough outs. Cincinnati is coming into Saturday night with a team ERA of 5.33, and that just isn’t good enough to get the job done. 

Mike Minor is set to make the start on Saturday, and he has gone just 1-3 with a whopping 6.97 ERA this season. Minor is facing a Giants team that is slumping a bit, but he has to give his offense a chance to win this game.

Kyle Farmer and Brandon Drury pace the Reds on offense, but this is a team that doesn’t always do a ton of damage. Farmer has a team-high batting average of .286, and Drury leads the way with 14 home runs.

Giants Finding Some Offense

Despite scoring just two runs in the series-opening loss on Friday night, the Giants usually don’t have any trouble finding offense. San Francisco has plenty of power in the everyday lineup as they have belted 80 home runs on the year.

Joc Pederson has enjoyed his first season with the Giants as he leads the team with 16 home runs and 38 RBIs. The Giants are hitting just .240 as a team, and they could be better about getting runners on base.

Logan Webb will take the ball on Saturday, and he is 6-2 with a 3.26 ERA on the year. Webb has been one of the leaders of this pitching staff, and he needs to set the tone to help turn things around.

Reds Roll to Another Win

The Cincinnati Reds are catching the San Francisco Giants at a perfect time, and they took advantage of that in the series opener. San Francisco has simply been struggling in all areas of the game, and those struggles are going to continue in this game.

Even though the Reds have one of the worst records in baseball, they still have enough talent to do some serious damage at any given time. This should be another low-scoring affair based on the pitching matchup, and the Giants just won’t get any big hits on Saturday night. 

Take the Cincinnati Reds moneyline as they pick up another impressive win on the road in San Francisco over the Giants.

Prop Picks

San Francisco (-125) UNDER 4.5 Runs

Cincinnati is allowing 5.59 runs per 9 innings on defense, which ranks No. 29 in the league. That average decreases to 4.89 runs per 9 innings on the road. Scores have gone UNDER in five of the Reds last seven games versus San Francisco.

With Dunkel predicting a Cincinnati victory by the score of 3-2, take the Giants (-125) to finish UNDER their Vegas team total of 4.5 runs against the Reds.

Mike Minor (-120) UNDER 2.5 Earned Runs

Minor has allowed 16 earned runs in 20.2 innings pitched this season. The Reds’ righthander has lowered his ERA from 11.25 to 6.97 in his last three starts.

With Dunkel predicting a Cincinnati road victory while holding the Giants UNDER their team run total, take Minor (-120) to finish UNDER 2.5 earned runs allowed against San Francisco.

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All Media on this page by Associated Press.