This is a 10* on SAN DIEGO

While they had far fewer hits than the Cardinals last night, the Padres took the opener of this series by a score of 5-4. Starter Joe Musgrove got his first win since throwing his no-hitter on April 9th and Manny Machado had a pair of RBIs. Also key was the Padres drawing 12 walks, thus nullifying St. Louis’ 10-4 edge in hits. Last night was the first time these teams had met since last season’s playoffs when San Diego won two games to one in the Wild Card round. The Cardinals haven’t been scoring a ton as of late. They’ve finished with four runs or less in 7 of the past 10 games. Facing MLB’s top pitching staff - in terms of runs allowed per game - that doesn’t figure to change tonight. San Diego is giving up only 3.3 runs/game this season. Chris Paddack will start Saturday’s game after not giving up any runs in his previous start, an 11-1 win over Colorado. Prior to that, Paddack had some misleading stat lines with an unusual number of unearned runs. Adam Wainwright, who was on the losing end of Game 2 in last year’s Wild Card Round, starts here for the Cardinals. Wainwright nearly went the distance in his last start, but he has a 6.51 ERA on the road. San Diego’s lineup is dealing with COVID issues right now, but last night showed they still have enough to beat St. Louis. The Padres are 35-17 L52 as a home favorite. St. Louis is 2-7 their last nine games at San Diego. Play on SAN DIEGO

AAA