St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Diego Padres – MLB, September 30, 2020

The 2020 MLB Playoffs continue Wednesday, September 30, as the St. Louis Cardinals take on the San Diego Padres in the opening contest of their National League best-of-three wild-card series.

The Cards went 30-28 in the regular season and finished second in the NL Central, enough to earn the No. 5 seed. The fourth-seeded Padres was second in the NL West, ending the regular season with a 37-23 record, but they were still six games behind the Dodgers. 

The stake is huge in the opening clash at Petco Park in San Diego, so here’s the best Cardinals vs. Padres betting pick along with the latest odds update and all the team stats and news you need to know.

While the Cardinals had some problems to clinch the playoff berth down the stretch, the Padres had no worries at all. San Diego has been playing well all season, so the bookies didn’t have any dilemma who’s going to be a fave in this series.

The Padres relied on their mighty offense this past regular season. They were scoring 5.42 runs per game (3^rd in the majors) while batting .257 (8^th) and slugging .466 (3^rd). The Padres hit the fourth-most home runs (95) and stole the most bases (55).

San Diego’s lineup is loaded from top to bottom, and guys like Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Eric Hosmer promise a lot of fun to the neutral baseball fans.

The Padres’ bullpen has improved a lot over the last few weeks which is a great sign ahead of the wild-card series. San Diego has home serious injury problems with its starting pitchers, and Dinelson Lamet and Mike Clevinger’s status is still in limbo.

Chris Paddack will take the mound in Game 1, and the righty was 4-5 with a 4.73 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in 12 starts this past regular season. In his second major-league season, Paddack had a lot of ups and downs, and the Padres hope he’ll find his best form when it matters the most.

On the other side, the Cardinals will start rookie Kwang-Hyun Kim, and the lefty impressed in the regular season, going 3-0 with a 1.62 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in seven starts and one relief appearance.

St. Louis was tallying only 4.14 runs per game in the regular season (24^th). The Cards finished 22^nd in batting average (.234) and 27^th in slugging percentage.

The Cardinals and Padres will meet each other for the first time since June 2019. The Padres are 8-3 in their last 11 meetings with the Cardinals, but they’ve lost six of their previous seven playoff encounters with the Birds.

Hereof, the Padres will have a huge motive to get revenge against their old rivals. San Diego’s offense needs to step up, and I think the Padres will hit well against the Cardinals’ rookie starter.

Kim will be under huge pressure to replicate his strong regular-season performance. However, this is not the regular season, and every mistake can be costly, especially when the Padres’ bats are on the other side.