San Diego Padres vs Pittsburgh Pirates 5/29/22 MLB Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres meet in MLB action from Petco Park on Sunday.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will look to finish the series strong in Sunday’s matchup. Ke’Bryan Hayes has a team-high 40 hits and 11 doubles with a team-high .272 batting average as well while Daniel Vogelbach has a team-high 6 home runs and 14 RBIs. Ben Gamel also has a team-high 17 RBIs while Michael Chavis and Yoshi Tsutsugo each have 15 RBIs and Bryan Reynolds has 6 home runs of his own on the year. Roansy Contreras will start here and is 1-0 with a 2.13 ERA and 15 strikeouts this season.

The San Diego Padres will hope to cash in some of the 16 runners left on base that they failed to in Saturday’s matchup to have a better offensive showing here. Manny Machado has a team-high 60 hits with 12 doubles, 8 home runs and 27 RBIs while Jurickson Profar also has 5 home runs and 20 RBIs. Eric Hosmer also has 52 hits with a .331 batting average and 8 doubles as well as 4 home runs and 24 RBIs this season. Jake Cronenworth and Trent Grisham each have a pair of triples as well this season. Mackenzie Gore will start here and is 3-1 with a 2.06 ERA and 38 strikeouts this season.

Pittsburgh is 6-13 in their last 19 Sunday games and 52-106 in their last 158 games as an underdog while the under is 7-2-3 in their last 12 games overall. San Diego is 6-2 in their last 8 games overall and 14-6 in their last 20 games as a favorite while the under is 3-0-1 in their last 4 games against the NL Central.

I get the reasoning for backing either side in this one, but I’m looking at the Padres in this one. I’m not sure what to make of Contreras in a small sample size so far this season. Mackenzie Gore’s been good so far this season and I think he’s able to lead the Padres to a win on the -1.5 run line in this one as I’m expecting San Diego to cash in some of the runners that they left on base on Saturday.