Orioles-Padres prediction: Picks, odds on Monday, August 14

The Baltimore Orioles (73-45) and San Diego Padres (56-62) will open the week with a three-game interleague series tonight. First pitch is scheduled for 9:40 p.m. ET at Petco Park in San Diego. Rookie Grayson Rodriguez (2-3, 5.84 ERA) will step on the hill for the O’s and will go up against fellow righty Yu Darvish (8-7, 4.19 ERA) for the Friars.

Baltimore is entering the second leg of its nine-game road trip out west and successfully picked up the series victory against the Mariners over the weekend. Both of those wins came in extra innings, and they allowed the Orioles to maintain a three-game lead on the Rays at the top of the AL East standings. Meanwhile, San Diego is trying to establish some positive momentum after dropping its series against the Diamondbacks over the weekend. The Padres have lost six of its last seven contests and have slid even further back in both the NL West and NL Wild Card race.

San Diego enters the game as -142 favorites on the moneyline over at DraftKings Sportsbook, while the Orioles are +120 underdogs. The run total is set at 8.

Orioles-Padres picks: Monday, August 14

Injury report

Orioles

Out: SP John Means (elbow/back), RP Austin Voth (elbow), OF Aaron Hicks (hamstring), RP Dillon Tate (forearm), RP Danny Coulombe (biceps)

Padres

Day-To-Day: SP Michael Wacha (shoulder),
Out: SP Joe Musgrove (shoulder), SP Drew Pomeranz (elbow), RP Alek Jacob (elbow), RP Tim Hill (finger), RP Adrian Morejon (knee)

Starting pitchers

Grayson Rodriguez vs. Yu Darvish

Rodriguez has pitched well for the past month, but is still in search of his first win since May 9. Over his last two starts, the rookie righty has yielded five earned runs over 11.2 innings of work while striking out 10 batters in the process. Lefties are batting .288 with a .950 OPS against him this season, so he’ll have to be extra careful against Juan Soto and Jake Cronenworth tonight.

Darvish has also been solid in both of his starts this month, but the Padres’ bullpen have squandered both of those outings. He went six innings against the Mariners last Wednesday, yielding just one run off six hits and two walks during his start. Leadoff hitters are batting .302 against him for the year, so a huge key for his success tonight will be putting down Adley Rutschman.

Over/Under pick

Both teams have struggled at the plate as of late as both have ranked in the bottom 10 in batting average and OPS over the last week. However, these lineups have both shown the capability to heat up at the right time and because of that, I’ll take the over in this one.

Pick: Over 8

Moneyline pick

Baltimore has willed its way to a late victory in each of its last two games and it would not be a shock if the O’s did the same tonight. I’ll predict that this game plays out for San Diego like it has for Darvish’s previous two outings with the righty delivering six quality innings, only for the bullpen to flounder at the end.