Padres vs White Sox Prediction
The San Diego Padres will play the Chicago White Sox in Game 1 of their series on Friday night at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, Illinois. The White Sox lost another series prior to this one, while San Diego is playing some of their best baseball to finish the season.
Padres Preview
The San Diego Padres are 79-80 this season and they have won three of their last four games. San Diego is coming off of a series win against the Giants, where they won two out of three games. The Padres have won 11 of their last 13 games, but they will most likely miss the playoffs by a few games. The San Diego pitching staff has a 3.79 ERA, a 1.27 WHIP, and a .236 opponent batting average this year. The Padres offense has scored 741 runs with a .244 batting average and a .329 on base percentage. Juan Soto is batting .275 with 35 home runs and 108 RBI’s for the Padres. The projected starting pitcher for San Diego is Nick Martinez, who is 5-4 with a 3.59 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP over 105.1 innings pitched this season.
White Sox Preview
The Chicago White Sox are 61-98 this season and they have lost five of their last eight games. Chicago is coming off of a series loss against Arizona, where they lost two out of three games. The White Sox have only won one series since early August. The Chicago pitching staff has a 4.91 ERA, a 1.42 WHIP, and a .250 opponent batting average. The White Sox offense has scored 637 runs with a .239 batting average and a .292 on base percentage this season. Andrew Vaughn is batting .260 with 21 home runs and 80 RBI’s for the White Sox. The projected starting pitcher for Chicago is Dylan Cease, who is 7-8 with a 4.66 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP over 172 innings pitched this year.
Matchup/League Facts
The San Diego Padres rank T1st in the league for walks this season (637).
The San Diego Padres are one of only 4 teams in the league to rank top 10 in both strikeouts and on-base percentage this season.
The Chicago White Sox rank 7th in the league for strikeouts this season (1433).
The Chicago White Sox rank T17th in the league for doubles this season (262).
Pick
The Padres are still alive in the postseason race, as this article is written, but they are barely hanging on and will most likely be eliminated very soon. Even with the strong possibility of not making the playoffs, the Padres are playing great baseball right now. On the other hand, Chicago has been terrible over the last couple of months and is only 31-47 at home. Chicago is starting Dylan Cease, who has allowed three earned runs or fewer in three straight starts. San Diego is starting Nick Martinez, who has allowed no earned runs over his last two starts (7IP). I am going to continue to ride the Padres on their hot streak here.
