San Diego Padres vs Houston Astros Predictions, Betting Odds & Picks

Garcia’s 2021 record: (20-16-2)

How to Watch San Diego Padres at Houston Astros

Darvish Yet to be Solved in 2021

There are a few off-season acquisitions every year that get all the attention. That truly appears as if they will change the landscape of baseball and single-handedly propel a team from being a good squad to one that is a legitimate threat to win it all.

That was Yu Darvish coming to the Padres. And so far, he has lived up to lofty standards.

Darvish ranks in the top-11 in baseball in almost every major statistic including record (5-1 — T-10th), ERA (1.75 — 5th), strikeouts (74 – T-11th) and WHIP (0.89 – 11th) and the Padres have been at their best with him on the mound.

The Padres are a nice team even when Darvish doesn’t pitch — they have a very respectable 23-18 when all others are on the mound. But they’re a nearly unbeatable team when he is on the mound. San Diego is 9-1 in Darvish’s 10 stars.

The ace from Japan has been good all year, but he’s been at his best of late. He has a 1.14 ERA this month in four starts and has given up just one run in his last three games — 18 innings total including 7 innings each in the last two starts.

Odorizzi Ready to Impress the Fans of Houston

The Houston Astros appear to be on the back end of this winning era, but they’re not quite ready to call it over — and they shouldn’t, they’re just a few games out of first place.

One sign that showed they were still trying to give it a run was signing a proven veteran in Jake Odorizzi who in his last full season (2019) had one of the better seasons in his career.

However, they haven’t been able to enjoy his service this year — he’s been out for more than a month with elbow troubles. But he’s finally back and ready to show Houston he is better than his 0-2 record with a 10.13 ERA in eight innings of work.

Houston will likely be careful with his return — I wouldn’t expect him to go more than 80 or so pitches, which would likely be around five innings if all goes well.

X-factors to Watch on Both Sides

For Houston, it’s going to be a tall task for anybody to get multiple hits in a game where Yu Darvish is starting. But the Astros have a number of veterans and capable hitters who have had big games even off the best arms in the game.

One of those people is Alex Bregman. Bregman has had another nice start to the season, currently just outside the top 10 with a .313 batting average — those numbers are even better in May when he’s hitting .326. The Astros third baseman has also belted six home runs with 25 RBIs and an .867 OPS on the year.

For San Diego, who else are we going to watch but Fernando Tatis Jr. It was just last week when he was on the best tear of anybody in baseball — he had a five-game stretch when he had five home runs and 14 RBIs.

He’s still hitting the cover off the ball — he has four RBIs in his last four games and reached base four times on Thursday against Milwaukee. Oftentimes we try to look at some of the unsung heroes as our x-factors, but every now and then it just comes down to can one person deliver a big blow. For Tatis Jr., the answer to that question is generally yes.