Baseball Betting San Diego Padres at Pittsburgh Pirates
Posted On Friday, July 23rd, 2010 By admin
The San Diego Padres look to make up ground in the race for top spot in the NL as they begin a three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates. First pitch is at 7 PM ET.
The San Diego Padres (55-39, 25-20 away) have the best road record in the National League, but they’ve been struggling on the road of late. They have just three wins in their last nine road games. They will need to get back to form if they are to catch the Atlanta Braves who sit 1.5-games ahead in the race for top spot in the NL. The good news is that the Braves haven’t lost a series in Pittsburgh in the last decade.
The Padres strength is in their pitching. Their 3.30 team ERA , .239 opposing players’ batting average and 750 strikeouts all rank in the top three in the majors.
The Pittsburgh Pirates (34-61, 23-23 home) will have a really tough time dealing with the Padres pitching. The Pirates hitting is the exact opposite of the Padres pitching: bottom three in hitting, runs and batting average.
The Pirates offense has looked a little better of late. They are 4-3 since the all star break while averaging 11.75 runs in the four wins.
San Diego sends Kevin Correia (6-6, 5.22 ERA) to the mound. Correia is coming off of a 6-4 win over the Diamondbacks in which he struck out nine batters.
On the mound for Pittsburgh will be Paul Maholm (6-7, 4.03 ERA). Maholm’s last outing was even more impressive than Correia’s. He went nine scoreless innings against Houston while giving up just three hits.
