San Diego Padres vs. Chicago Cubs
- MassMoneyline
- Apr 6
- 2 min read
The San Diego Padres will conclude a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday afternoon, as these National League teams meet on the diamond in the Windy City.
The San Diego Padres are rocking a 7-2 record this year, even after dropping game two of the series 7-1 on Saturday. They kicked off the season with a bang, winning seven games in a row. But don't look now, they've been outscored 10-2 in the first two games of this series and are trying to avoid a sweep.
San Diego's likely starting pitcher is rookie lefty Kyle Hart. He's got a 1-0 record with a 3.60 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP in 5 innings pitched this year.
The Chicago Cubs are off to a 7-4 start this season after taking the first two games of this series with scores of 7-1 and 3-1. Ben Brown is lined up to start for Chicago, and he's currently got a 1-1 record with a 5.87 ERA and a 1.96 WHIP over 7.2 innings this season.
So far this year, they've been pretty solid on offense, ranking eighth in MLB with a .782 team OPS and scoring 6.36 runs per game. They're also showing some serious power, sitting third in MLB with 16 home runs.
Chicago's on a roll, winning five games straight and scoring at least seven runs in four of them.
When there are runners on base, the Padres and Cubs are playing at totally different levels. The Padres rank 20th in the league with a .652 team OPS, while the Cubs are doing much better, sitting at seventh with a .866 team OPS in those situations.
The Cubs managed to give their bullpen a break on Saturday because Matthew Boyd pitched six innings. Meanwhile, for the Padres, Nick Pivetta only lasted three innings, so the bullpen had to bring in some of their key players. Rookie Kyle Hart is still kind of a mystery, but Ben Brown has already shown he can handle the San Diego lineup.
Chicago is on fire right now, racking up five wins in a row and outscoring their opponents 45-11 during that run. The Cubs' batting lineup has been performing exceptionally well in the first two games of the series, outscoring San Diego 10-2. Plus, bringing in Kyle Tucker has already been a big win for them.
San Diego kicked off with seven straight wins, but it seems like they forgot their bats at home because they've been struggling in this series. Hart was credited a win against the Guardians, but it's hard to be enthusiastic about someone with such limited major league experience throwing to these Cubs bats right now.
With the Cubs offense clicking, and a rested bullpen, I give them every edge in this contest and expect that they dominate the season series.
I'm laying 1.35 units to profit 1 unit on the Chicago Cubs moneyline.
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