The Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres meet Sunday in MLB action at Petco Park. Let’s preview this game and give out a pick and prediction.

Washington Nationals Betting Preview

The Washington Nationals have scored 8 runs in their last 3 games and 3 or fewer runs in 5 straight games. The Nationals have lost 10 of their last 12 games when scoring 3 or fewer runs. Lane Thomas leads the Nationals with 84 hits and 37 RBI, while Joey Meneses and Luis Garcia have combined for 156 hits and 69 RBI. MacKenzie Gore gets the ball, and he is 3-6 with a 4.02 ERA and 95 strikeouts this season. This will be Gore’s second career game against the Padres.

San Diego Padres Betting Preview

The San Diego Padres have scored 23 runs in their last 3 games and 4 or more runs in 8 of their last 13 games. The Padres have won 10 of their last 13 games when scoring 4 or more runs. Juan Soto leads the Padres with 71 hits and 40 RBI, while Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr. have combined for 135 hits and 62 RBI. Seth Lugo gets the ball, and he is 3-3 with a 3.86 ERA and 43 strikeouts this season. Lugo is 3-3 with a 3.57 ERA and 60 strikeouts in his career against the Nationals.

Trends

The Nationals are 3-8 in their last 11 road games and 7-19 in their last 26 overall. The Padres are 6-2 in their last 8 home games and 2-5 in their last 7 Sunday games. The under is 5-0 in Nationals last 5 during game 3 of a series. The under is 35-16-1 in Padres last 52 overall. The Nationals are 1-5 in the last 6 meetings.

Randy’s Pick

The San Diego Padres are going to be favored for obvious reasons, as they’re the better team at home, but they’re not playing consistent ball. Also, there’s not a huge edge in starting pitching between Gore and Lugo. Current Padres have also had success against Lugo in a short sample size. I just don’t understand why the Padres are this big of a favorite outside of they’re playing the Nats. That’s just not good enough for me. Give me the road dog.