Baseball betting handicappers will have their choice of a spoiler against a team that is fighting for its playoff life as San Diego hosts the Chicago Cubs on Thursday. Be sure and check Sbgglobal for the latest side and total odds on this important matchup that begins at 6:35 PM Eastern.
Fading down the Stretch
The San Diego Padres led the National League West Division throughout the summer but have not been the same since a catastrophic 10 game losing streak that began on August 26. San Diego went 11-11 since snapping out of that 10 game funk, but that was not nearly enough to stave off the San Francisco Giants, who took a 2 game lead in the NL West this week, nor the Atlanta Braves, who led the Padres by a game and a half in the NL wild card race.
Spoilers
The Chicago Cubs had a record of 72-85 and were wallowing in 5th place in the NL Central yet have proven to be season ruining spoilers as they won the first two games of this series at Petco Park to set the Padres back and into peril. Previously the Cubs had swept the St. Louis Cardinals in a 3 game series on the road to knock them out of the race in the NL Central.
Pitching Matchup
The scheduled probable starting pitchers for this MLB betting matchup are Tom Gorzelanny for the Cubs and Jon Garland for San Diego.
Gorzelanny has a baseball betting record of 7-9 with a 4.28 earned run average. He is something of a strikeout pitcher with 116 K’s in 130 innings of work. Gorzelanny has not been effective against San Diego has he is 0-1 with a 7.11 ERA this year. Gorzelanny has been highly inconsistent in his last 5 MLB betting starts as he allowed 19 earned runs.
Garland has a record of 14-12 with a 3.58 earned run average. He has pitched 7 scoreless innings against the Cubs this year and has allowed 9 earned runs in his last 3 starts.
The Numbers
Chicago is a respectable 37-39 on the road with just 32 of their 76 road games going over the total. The Cubs pitching staff is thin and ranks 25th for staff earned run average. San Diego is 44-35 at home but struggling on offense as they rank 21st in run production.