San Diego Padres vs Oakland Athletics Predictions, Betting Odds, Picks

• Wild card chase familiar on both sides
• Lopsided pitching matchup could be the difference
• X-factors to watch

San Diego Padres vs Oakland Athletics Odds

Odds presented by: DraftKings Sportsbook

Trends to Watch

• Padres are 10-1 in their last 11 vs. a team with a winning record
• Padres are 4-1 in their last 5 games following an off day
• Padres are 9-3 in their last 12 interleague games vs. a team with a winning record
• Padres are 26-10 in their last 36 vs. American League West
• Padres are 23-9 in their last 32 interleague games
• Padres are 2-6 in their last 8 road games vs. a team with a winning record
• Under is 5-1-1 in Padres last 7 road games vs. a team with a winning record
• Under is 5-1 in Padres last 6 road games
• Athletics are 14-6 in in the last 20 head-to-head meetings
• Athletics are 4-1 in their last 5 overall
• Athletics are 11-3 in their last 14 games following an off day
• Athletics are 74-31 in their last 105 games vs. a left-handed starter
• Under is 4-0 in Athletics last 4 home games
• Under is 9-2 in Athletics last 11 home games vs. a left-handed starter
• Under is 10-4 in Athletics last 14 overall

San Diego Padres at Oakland Athletics Predictions and Picks

San Diego isn’t an underdog often, but they are in this contest for good reason. Oakland has a significant pitching advantage and has many factors pointing to this being a good matchup for them, namely their success historically against lefthander — the Athletics are 74-31 in their last 105 games against southpaws. We like Oakland in a double-dip — run spread and money line — as well as the under.

Our Picks:

Run Spread -1.5 (+105)

Money Line (-190)

Under 8 (-115) 

Garcia’s 2021 record: (41-39-2)

How to Watch San Diego Padres vs Oakland Athletics

Wild Card Teams Trying to Make a Divisional Push

They’re in opposite leagues, but the Athletics and Padres know exactly how one another are feeling. Both teams are inside the playoffs — the Padres have a 4.5 game lead over the Reds and the Athletics lead the Yankees by three games — but as the second wild card team.

The Athletics are in this position because of their pitching staff. Their starting rotation’s 56 quality starts is the best in MLB, while they also rank in the top 10 with a 1.21 WHIP (7th) and 3.66 ERA (9th). Meanwhile, their offense has done just enough, ranking 15th in slugging percentage (.403), 16th in runs scored (.409) and 18th in on-base percentage (.302).

San Diego has essentially been the opposite. The Padres pitching staff started off hot — ranking fourth in baseball with a 2.67 ERA in April. That’s come crashing down as of late and their 6.12 ERA was 28th in the majors.

However, they rank in the top half of nearly every offensive category including eighth in runs (515) and on-base percentage (.328), 10th in batting average (.245) and 12th in slugging percentage (.411).

Pitching Matchup Not What People Expected

Anything can happen in sports, that’s why they play the game. But it’s hard to imagine anybody predicting Blake Snell would struggle as much as he has in San Diego.

Snell is 4-4 on the season and if he didn’t have so much run support from one of the best offenses in all of baseball it would be much worse. The former Cy Young Award winner has a 5.44 ERA and 1.61 WHIP — numbers that have been trending down all year.

Snell’s ERA was 6.00 in July across four starts and in large part are due to his inability to locate the ball. Snell’s walk rate of 5.9 per nine innings is the worst of his career and his 8.6 hits per nine innings given up is the worst since his rookie year.

Sean Manea, on the other hand, is doing everything Oakland hoped he would. Manea ranks in the top 26 of almost every major stat including his 8-6 record (22nd), 3.01 ERA (15th), 1.14 WHIP (26th) and 137 strikeouts (T-19th).

Manea was great in his last outing, which coincidentally came against the Athletics when the teams met in their only other seres of the year just last week. Manea threw six innings of shutout, one-hit baseball, issuing just one walk while recording nine strikeouts.

X-Factors to Watch

The first person who came to mind as an x-factor for San Diego is Manny Machado because he’s been so red hot. Machado is 9-of-21 the last week with three home runs and seven RBIs.

But he’s such a star and playing so well, it’s just too obvious to pick him. Instead, we will go with Eric Hosmer who has also been hot. Hosmer is 8-of-15 this past week with a 1.183 OPS.

For Oakland, we’re going to pick someone who comes out of the left field (literally) in Mark Canha. Canha is solid against lefties, with a .370 OBP and .796 OPS in 115 at-bats.