The six-month and 162-game wait is over – the MLB Playoffs are finally here! Twelve teams remain standing, while the other 18 are busy cleaning out their lockers. We kick things off with the Wild Card round, with all four series starting on Tuesday. Before all the action starts, here are your winning plays. Finally, we move to a rare playoff matchup between the Chicago Cubs and the San Diego Padres.
Cubs vs Padres Wild Card Series Predictions & Best Bets
#5 Chicago Cubs vs #4 San Diego Padres
Game 1: Tuesday, 10:00 PM ET @ San Diego
Game 2: Wednesday, 10:00 PM ET @ Chicago
Game 3: Thursday, 10:00 PM ET @ San Diego
The Chicago Cubs meeting the San Diego Padres in the playoffs is so rare that it’s only happened twice before. The first time was in 1984, a series I remember watching as a child, which the Padres won, naturally. It took 41 years, but the Cubs got their revenge in last year’s Wild Card round, topping the Padres. So this year’s series can be considered the rubber match.
And bad news for the Cubs – they are meeting the hottest team in baseball. No team has been better than San Diego over the past two months, as they’ve gone 41-18 and have only lost three times since September 7th. The Padres offense has gone supernova, led by Fernando Tatis Jr., who took a third of the season to hit his first homer but has since caught fire.
But it’s not just the bats that have carried San Diego to their third straight 90+ win season. The most feared bullpen in the majors allows the Padres starting pitchers to go hard for about five innings, then pass the ball off to a lights-out pen. In a potential three-game series, having two of them played at Petco Park, where the Padres have the (tied for) fourth-best home record (51-30), is another checkmark in San Diego’s column.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Chicago has perhaps the unanimous National League MVP on their roster, Pete Crow-Armstrong (he’s going to win MVP; the unanimous part is the only question that remains). And Alex Bregman had a typical strong season in his first year in the Windy City. But I don’t think that’ll be enough for the Cubbies.
San Diego to win this series is my best bet, at a very reasonable -120 moneyline. And continuing my home run prop bets, I’m taking a big swing on one for this series. Chicago’s Dansby Swanson hit five homers against San Diego this season, two in one game and three in another. Let’s sprinkle some money on him to homer in this series and get a massive payout.
Best Bets: San Diego to win series (-120); Dansby Swanson to homer in series (+800)
Series Previews
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