The San Diego Padres find themselves in a very unusual position in the baseball odds standings as the team heads into the weekend. Actually, most of the 2010 baseball betting odds season has been unusual, at least by the Padres standards. With the season almost half in the bag the Padres actually find themselves at the top of the NL West baseball betting standings and with a record of 42-30 have the best record in the entire National League.
On Saturday this team will play the second game of their road series with the struggling Florida Marlins. The Marlins have been in the sports betting news lately for all the wrong reasons. The Marlins penny-pinching ownership has proven its ineptness time and time again and the firing of well-respected Freddy Gonzales was just the latest crazy move that baseball odds fans have come to expect.
With the Marlins just 2 games under .500 (35-37) it’s a strange move, but be that as it may the baseball season goes forward for this team and on Saturday at home the Fish have a great chance to get a win against an NL division leader.
And that’s because ace Josh Johnson will be on the mound. He’s had had an awful time getting run support this MLB betting season and his 8-2 record, while impressive, should be more like 14-0. His minuscule ERA of 1.80 through 15 starts is mindboggling. What he’s done recently is even more impressive when taken in the appropriate baseball betting context.
Over his past 8 starts he’s only allowed 1 run or less, with 4 of those starts resulting in 0 ER. When you consider that only 2 other pitchers in the history of baseball betting have done such a feat and consider that 18 pitchers have thrown perfect games, his pitching brilliance at the moment is almost unparalleled in MLB betting history.
The Padres will send Jon Garland to the mound a fine pitcher in his own right have a very nice MLB odds season. His record of 7-5 is bolstered by his 3.26 ERA and 58 Ks in 91 IP. The Marlins will have a tough time getting a bead on this guy and their best chance for a victory against the Dads is to touch him early and try and build up as big of a run buffer as possible. Johnson will do his part, likely holding the Padres to a run or two, but the Marlin bullpen will likely give it all back.
Look for Johnson to dazzle again but for the Marlins to lose this low scoring game late.