San Diego Padres vs. Colorado Rockies Pick 8/30/20

San Diego Padres (20-15) vs. Colorado Rockies (17-16)

When: 3 p.m., Sunday, August 30

Where: Coors Field, Denver

Starting Pitchers: Chris Paddack (2-3, 5.15 ERA, 1.23 WHIP) vs. Ryan Castellani (1-1, 3.54 ERA, 0.98 WHIP)

Moneyline: SD -149/COL +139 (5Dimes – You’re wasting money if not taking advantage of their reduced juice baseball, football and basketball odds!)

Runline: Padres -1.5/Rockies +1.5

Total: 12.5

Second Place Battle

With less than half the season remaining, it’s becoming clear that the Padres and the Rockies are playing for the second playoff berth out of the NL West, as it appears pretty clear that neither one of them is going to catch the Dodgers. But in this weird season, each division is now guaranteed two bids to the postseason, while anyone who finishes third or worse gets left to the uncertainty of dealing with the teams in the East and Central for one of the two wild-card spots.

The Rockies seem to recognize what they’re up against, as they’ve picked up five wins in their past six games, four of them coming as the unstbderdog. Once again, Colorado is the underdog, but the Rockies have proven very comfortable against NL West opponents not named the Dodgers, as they’ve gone 12-5 against the other three teams in their division, including a recent sweep of the Diamondbacks. Against the Padres, Colorado has had the upper hand, winning three of the five meetings this season and closing to within two games of San Diego.

Strangely, the Rockies have been the team with the upper hand when there aren’t a lot of runs to be had. When the teams have combined for double-digit run totals, the Padres have won two out of three. But the Rockies have won the two matchups that saw nine runs or less, and they’ve got the pitching edge in this one.

Where’s the Problem?

The Rockies started this series in a big way with four runs in the first inning of the series opener, but following that, Colorado managed just one run over the next 14 innings. But the Rockies got the win anyway because the Padres’ bullpen once again couldn’t hold the lead, which has become a real problem for San Diego. The Padres’ relievers have botched four of the past five games, and the only reason the damage wasn’t worse for the Padres was that they somehow won one of the games they botched, scoring seven runs in the eighth inning to make up for the four runs they’d given up at the top of the inning.

That’s one reason that the total is as high as it is for this game: there’s no trusting the San Diego bullpen at the moment. There’s also the problem of Chris Paddack, who is running into some real growing pains. The 24-year-old appears to be the ace of the future for San Diego, but in his past three starts, he’s been tagged for at least six runs twice, and the exception was Texas, which ranks last in the majors in most categories. Bottom line: the pitching is a bit of a mess for San Diego, and if Colorado can take advantage of it, there’s plenty of reason to expect the Rockies to put up some big numbers.

Powerful, Powerful

There’s another reason why the number is so high: these teams are as high-scoring as they get, even if they haven’t shown it during this series. Colorado has scored 162 runs on the season to rank seventh in the majors, but nobody’s been able to match San Diego in terms of offensive prowess. Only the White Sox have more hits this season than the Padres, and San Diego has 21 more runs on the season than Chicago does.

The Rockies have tended to play to the under this season, especially in the early innings, but given the firepower in this matchup, it’s going to be hard for these teams to go under with these pitchers on the slab.

Betting Trends

• The Padres have won nine of their past 12 games.
• The Padres have gone 1-6 in the past six games against the NL West.
• The Rockies are 5-1 in their past six games.
• The over is 4-0 in the Padres’ past four games.
• The over is 7-3 in the Padres’ past ten games as a road favorite.
• The over is 4-0 in the Rockies’ past four home games.
• The over is 4-1 in the Rockies’ past five games as a home underdog.
• The Padres have lost five of their past seven in Denver.
• The over is 11-1 in the past 12 matchups in Colorado.

Weather Report

There will be low humidity and winds blowing to the west at approximately eight miles an hour, with temperatures expected to hit 82 degrees at the first pitch.

Dan’s Pick

Colorado has seemed to have the Padres’ number as of late when they play in Denver, and San Diego is really not a great road team, as the Padres are a middling 8-9 when they leave Petco Park. Colorado hasn’t been the greatest home team this season, but the Rockies seem to have figured things out in the past week and seem to understand that they’ve got a real chance to make a run to the playoffs. With Paddack also struggling as of late, I really don’t want to lay the juice with San Diego in this one. I’ll take the underdog here and go with the Rockies. Bet this week’s MLB picks for FREE by taking advantage of a 100% real cash bonus offer at one of the web’s best sportsbooks: MyBookie!