The San Diego Padres and Minnesota Twins meet Tuesday in MLB action at Target Field. Let’s preview this game and give out a pick and prediction.
The San Diego Padres have scored 8 runs in their last 3 games and 4 or more runs in 5 of their last 8 games. The Padres have won 14 straight games when scoring 4 or more runs. Xander Bogaerts leads the Padres with 36 hits and 15 RBI, while Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth have combined for 62 hits and 28 RBI. Michael Wacha gets the ball, and he is 2-1 with a 5.46 ERA and 26 strikeouts this season. Wacha is 3-1 with a 4.13 ERA and 29 strikeouts in his career against the Twins.
The Minnesota Twins have scored 5 runs in their last 3 games and 3 or fewer runs in 5 of their last 8 games. The Twins have lost 5 of their last 7 games when scoring 3 or fewer runs. Byron Buxton leads the Twins with 28 hits and 19 RBI, while Jose Miranda and Carlos Correa have combined for 51 hits and 27 RBI. Louie Varland gets the ball, and he is 0-0 with a 5.91 ERA and 14 strikeouts this season. This will be Varland’s first career game against the Padres.
The Padres are 1-6 in their last 7 Tuesday games and 20-8 in their last 28 games following an off day. The Twins are 6-2 in their last 8 home games and 5-2 in their last 7 games following an off day. The under is 5-0 in Padres last 5 overall. The over is 4-1-1 in Twins last 6 home games. The Padres are 1-6 in the last 7 meetings in Minnesota and 4-13 in the last 17 meetings.
This line is a bit strange, as you can argue the San Diego Padres are the better team overall, and I’d consider Wacha the better pitcher over Varland. Neither pitcher is off to a great start this season, but I do have more confidence in Wacha turning things around. I’ll take the Padres and the slightly more favorable price.