Nationals vs Padres Predictions and Picks

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Washington Nationals vs. San Diego Padres Preview

Where: Petco Park, San Diego

When: Thursday, June 16, 10:10 PM ET

Line: Washington Nationals (-155) vs. San Diego Padres (+140); total: 8.0 – view all MLB lines

TV Broadcast: MASN2, FSSD, FOX Deportes San Diego

Betting on the Washington Nationals (-155)

The Washington Nationals returned to winning ways Wednesday with a thrilling 5-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Jayson Werth singled in the winning run with two outs in the 12th inning to lift the Nationals to their fifth win in their last six games. The Nats will look to carry the momentum of that huge victory when they take on the San Diego Padres at Petco Park tonight.

Pitching for the Nationals in the series opener is 29-year-old Tanner Roark (5-4, 2.93 ERA). The hard-throwing righty earned his fifth win this season in his last start, throwing seven shutout innings against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday. He surrendered just six hits and no walks and struck out seven batters in a comprehensive 8-0 victory.

Roark can’t do it all alone, though, and he needs the Nationals’ hitters to contribute on the offensive end as well. Expected to lead Washington in that department tonight are Bryce Harper and Daniel Murphy. Harper leads the Padres in homers (13) and on-base percentage (.405) while Murphy is the team leader in RBIs (42), batting average (.359) and hits (88) this season.

The Nationals are 7-3 in their last 10 road games. They are pegged at +450 to win the National League pennant.

Betting on the San Diego Padres (+140)

The San Diego Padres finally snapped their four-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday. Melvin Upton Jr. homered and had two RBIs for the Padres who improved to 27-40 this season. The Padres will look to make it back-to-back wins when they face the Washington Nationals in their series opener tonight.

Starting for San Diego in this National League matchup is right-hander Erik Johnson (0-3, 7.71 ERA). His debut for the Padres didn’t go as planned as he surrendered nine hits, five earned runs and two walks over 4.2 innings in Saturday’s 5-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies. Johnson will look for a much better showing against the Nationals in his first ever start at Petco Park. In fact, this will be his first career start in the Pacific Time Zone.

With Johnson still a big question mark at this point, the onus is on the San Diego hitters to provide some much-needed runs tonight. Expected to lead the Padres offense tonight are outfielders Matt Kemp and Jon Jay. Kemp leads the Padres in homers (15) and RBIs (43) while Jay is the team leader in hits (75), batting average (.290) and on-base percentage (.336) this season.

The Padres are 4-6 in their last 10 home games against Nationals. They are priced at +50,000 to win the World Series this year.