For the third straight season, the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks will open the season against each other. This year, they’re meeting in Phoenix, instead of Southern California, as they did in 2020 and 2021. Which way to lean at BMR’s best sportsbook?
San Diego Padres vs. Arizona Diamondbacks
Thursday, April 07, 2022 – 09:40 PM EDT at Chase Field
Both teams are looking to shake off disappointing 2021 campaigns. The Diamondbacks finished with the worst record in all of baseball, tying the Baltimore Orioles with a 52-110 record and becoming one of the poster children for tanking in baseball.
Arizona was never expected to be MLB contenders—or even good—last season, but the Diamondbacks weren’t supposed to be quite as bad as things turned out. In other words, it wasn’t a full-on tank from the outset like it was in Baltimore. Instead, a team in transition was hit by injuries to several key players and ended up bottoming out.
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The Padres were expected to challenge the then-defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and the National League. San Diego seemed up to the challenge early, meeting LA in a pair of epic early-season series. The Padres faded as the year went on, however, finishing third, behind the Dodgers and the surprising San Francisco Giants and missing the playoffs altogether with a sub-.500 record.
The slide cost manager Jayce Tingler his job, and the Padres will be playing under former Diamondbacks skipper Bob Melvin, hired over the offseason.
Tatis Free Zone
The Padres have one of the most exciting young players in MLB in future face of the franchise Fernando Tatis Jr. In his short time in the big leagues, Tatis has made a splash with his undeniable talent and his flashy play, turning San Diego into a bat-flipping, trash-talking new school contender that has turned baseball’s stodgy unwritten rules on their heads.
San Diego has struggled to keep Tatis on the field, however. He battled a shoulder problem all last season, an injury that put him on the injured list more than once and also affected his performance when he was on the field.
This year, he’ll be missing the first three months due to injuries suffered in an offseason motorcycle accident.
He crashed in December but initially thought it was a minor injury. Things weren’t any better in February and, in March, he finally underwent surgery to fix it.
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The development is bad news, indeed, for a Padres team that was hoping to get off to a fast start and wipe away memories of last year’s 79-83 campaign, in particular the 12-34 record down the stretch.
San Diego traded second baseman Adam Frazier before realizing the extent of Tatis’s injury, meaning that depth will be short in the middle infield.
The Padres will send Yu Darvish to the mound to get the season started. Darvish was 8-11, 4.22 last season, and started 30 games. Like the Padres, he fell apart down the stretch. After making the All-Star team, he went 1-9 with a 6.65 ERA over the second half.
Shaking off Injuries
There are so many ways to measure just how bad the Diamondbacks were in 2021. In addition to the overall record, which was one loss short of the franchise’s record worst, the D-Backs lost 24 straight road games, setting a new MLB low mark for consecutive road losses.
To a man, the team expects to be improved in 2022. While they may not contend for a playoff spot in the tough NL West, Arizona should be more competitive.
“Everyone knows we’re not the team we showed we were last year,” Madison Bumgarner said. “We could come out here and accidentally do better than that.”
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Bumgarner will get the ball on Thursday, his third straight year as the team’s opening day starter. He was one of the team’s few reliable options last season, as injuries forced Arizona to use 15 different starting pitchers. Bumgarner started 26 games, however, posting a 7-10, 4.67 mark.
In addition to seeing its pitching staff ravaged by injuries, star player Ketel Marte struggled to stay healthy, playing in just over half of Arizona’s games. Things aren’t looking better as the 2022 season dawns. The entire left side of the infield—shortstop Nick Ahmed (shoulder) and third baseman Josh Rojas (oblique) were both placed on the injured list to start the year.
The Picks
Even without Tatis, the Padres have a significant edge in talent over the Diamondbacks. Even playing on the road against Arizona’s best pitcher, San Diego is a gift MLB pick.
Darvish and Bumgarner also opened last season in a battle of aces, and the game ended in an 8-7 slugfest. There are question marks about both bullpens this season, so expect the runs to mount after the starters depart in this one, too.
MLB Pick: Padres (-133) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
MLB Pick: Over 9 Runs (-110) at BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
