This is a 9* on StL

You’d have to go all the way back to May to find the last time the Padres (76-70) and Cardinals (76-69) hooked up. As you’ve seen by now, our 2021 Game of the Year took place in that series. It was in the middle of the three-game set and San Diego won 13-3, making us very happy. The Padres would go on to sweep that series, which was the start of a nine-game win streak. On June 25th, the team was 46-32 and feeling pretty good about itself. But things have changed. San Diego’s been a sub-.500 team these last three months and now trails the Cardinals - by a half game - for the NL’s second Wild Card spot. St. Louis is the hot team now as they’ve won seven of eight and five straight. They just swept the Mets in New York and had Thursday off. San Diego was in San Francisco yesterday. While they did win 9-4, this is just the third time in the last month they have won two straight games. It’s been more than a month since they won three straight. What makes this such a great spot to fade the Padres isn’t just revenge or recent form, but also they are being forced to start the recently signed Vince Velasquez due to the starting rotation being decimated by injuries. Velasquez was dropped by the Phillies in July after he allowed 11 runs over two terrible starts that spanned only 4.3 innings. Miles Mikolas is still working his way back from injury for St. Louis, but due to the spot being so favorable for the Cardinals we’ll look past his recent struggles on the mound. Play on ST. LOUIS

AAA