T.M. Selection: San Diego Padres.

I like the San Diego padres to win this game against the St Louis Cardinals on Monday. The Padres looked a lot better in their previous series with a series win over the Pirates and I think they are going to continue to get hot here with another win in this game. The Cardinals haven't looked bad either in their games lately but they just split their 2 most recent series and they lost their most recent game 8-0 to the Brewers in their own ballpark, their offense going completely cold in that game. Nick Martinez (2-2, 3.86 ERA) is up for the Padres here and was not pitching well at the beginning of the year but he has been pitching a lot better in his starts lately and I think he is going to continue pitching well here since he has only had 1 game in his previous 6 starts where he gave up more than 2 runs. Packy Naughton (0-1, 2.89 ERA) is up for the Cardinals here and he has had made a few appearances in games already this year, but he has only made 1 start and he gave up 3 runs in 3 innings in that start, which was also the longest number of innings he has pitched in a game all year. He is not going to offer the Cardinals a lot of innings to pitch in this game and this will end up being a bullpen game for them which, after what the Brewers did to their bullpen yesterday, it will be tough for them to find some good arms to use for this game. The padres have been pretty consistent with their scoring lately while the Cardinals have been up and down and I think the Padres will put up runs here while Martinez stays sharp here. I like the Padres to win this game.

T.M. Prediction: 4-1 Padres.