San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants Betting Preview/Prop Picks

NL West rivals are set to meet up on Monday night to begin a very important early-season series. The San Francisco Giants will host the San Diego Padres, and it has been a terrific start to the season for both teams.

San Diego comes into San Francisco with a record of 3-1 after playing well in Arizona against the Diamondbacks. The Padres are expected to hang around all season and compete in the NL West Division.

San Francisco is the defending NL West champions, and they are hoping to play well and be a pleasant surprise yet again. The Giants took two of three games from the Miami Marlins to begin the year. 

The San Francisco Giants are the moneyline betting favorites at -142.

Padres Have Plenty of Offense

The San Diego Padres are playing without Fernando Tatis Jr., but it hasn’t slowed down the offense up to this point. San Diego has scored 20 runs through the first four games, and that will be enough production to continue to win.

Jurickson Profar has gotten off to a great start to the year as he leads the team with a .400 batting average and two home runs. Hitting home runs is never easy in San Francisco, and the Padres will have to string some hits together. 

Right hander Nick Martinez is set to make the start for San Diego on Monday night, and he is looking for better results. Martinez went just 3-8 with a 5.66 ERA a season ago, and that isn’t good enough to get it done.

Giants Getting Great Pitching

The San Francisco Giants continue to be a team that can get outs, and they had a team ERA of just 2.89 through the first three games. Scoring runs has been an issue for the Giants to begin the year, but they know how to win low-scoring games.

Veteran Alex Wood makes the start on Monday night, and he has had plenty of success in a Giants uniform. Wood went 10-4 with a 3.83 ERA a season ago, and he is good enough to shut down this Padres team.

Brandon Belt has one of the three home runs for the Giants, and he will need to be a leader for this offense. San Francisco will have to score some more runs to keep up with San Francisco this week.

Giants Get the Win

The San Diego Padres batting lineup is not fun to deal with, but the Giants are able to shut down any opponent. San Diego will be trying to outscore the Giants all series long, but the Giants have a big edge on the mound Monday night.

Alex Wood just continues to pitch well for San Francisco, and he should put up a low number in this game. The Giants do struggle to score at times, but they are facing a pitcher that should allow them to do some hitting. 

Bet the San Francisco Giants -1.5 as they pull ahead late and cruise to an easy win on Monday night.

Prop Picks

San Francisco (+100) OVER 4.5 Runs

The Giants averaged 4.87 runs per game in 2021, which ranked No. 7 in the league. That average increased to 6.0 runs per game in their last 6 games versus San Diego. Scores have gone OVER in 12 of the Giants’ last 15 games versus the Padres.

With Dunkel predicting a San Francisco victory by the score of 6-4, take the Giants (+100) to finish OVER their Vegas team total of 4.5 runs against the Padres.

Brandon Crawford (-210) OVER 0.5 Hits

Crawford had 144 hits during the regular season in 2021, which ranked No. 1 on the Giants. He had 75 hits in 244 at-bats at home (.307 average) compared to 69 hits in 239 at-bats (.289 average) on the road.

With Dunkel predicting a San Francisco home victory while going OVER their Vegas team total, take Crawford (-210) to snap out of a slow start and go OVER 0.5 hits against the Padres.

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