Giants vs Padres Pick: Division Rivals Start a Brief 2-Game Series (Apr 29)

• Our Giants vs Padres pick dissects the first meeting between 2 of MLB‘s top teams early in the season
• San Francisco is in 1st place in the NL West; San Diego has been slumping, losing 4 straight
• The teams send their best starters to the mound, with Logan Webb going for the Giants and Nick Pivetta starting for the Padres

Giants Have Leapfrogged the Padres

San Francisco has won four of five to overtake slumping San Diego and take over first place in the NL West. The Giants send ace Logan Webb to the hill for the first game of their brief two-game set.

Webb has already amassed a 1.3 bWAR. He has made 6 starts and posted a 1.98 ERA, allowing 30 hits and striking out 44 in 36.1 innings. The righty is one of the most durable and reliable starters in baseball.

Among the Padres, Webb has had trouble with Manny Machado and Gavin Sheets. Both have hammered him. Machado is 11 for 32 with a double, a homer, and 4 RBI. Sheets is 5 for 8 with 2 doubles and 3 RBIs. Fernando Tatis Jr. is 5 for 23 with a home run. Yuli Gurriel is 3 for 8 with a home run.

The Giants are still waiting for Willy Adames to start hitting. The high-priced free agent is batting .202 with a .542 OPS and 1 home run. Wilmer Flores is leading the majors in RBIs with 28.

San Francisco is winning with solid top-to-bottom pitching and timely hitting.

Padres Need Pivetta To Stop the Bleeding

The Padres’ 4-game losing streak dropped them from a game in front in the NL West to 1.5 games behind and in third place, trailing the Giants and Dodgers. The Rays swept them over the weekend.

To stop the skid, the Friars turn to unexpected ace Nick Pivetta. Pivetta has made 5 starts and amassed a 1.5 bWAR. He has given up 16 hits and 4 earned runs in 30 innings and posted a 1.20 ERA. These are “starting the All-Star Game” numbers.

Still, judging by his career ERA of 4.66, there will eventually be a regression to the norm at some point. He won’t end the season with a 1968 Bob Gibson ERA.

Only four current members of the Giants have hit against Pivetta. Adames is 3 for 8, all doubles. Matt Chapman is 5 for 25 with a double and 10 strikeouts. Flores is 1 for 4. And Mike Yastrzemski is 1 for 2 with a home run.

San Diego’s bats have cooled noticeably after a scorching start. They have been surprisingly devoid of power except for Tatis, who has 8 homers. Is this who they are, or are they the team that exploded out of the gate?

Giants vs Padres Pick: Webb Will Keep San Diego Reeling

This is a marquee pitching matchup. But Webb has a longer history of pitching this well than Pivetta does. At some point, Pivetta will fall back to Earth. Even if it isn’t this game and they have a classic pitchers’ duel, the Giants will end up on top because the Padres are not hitting.