MLB picks: Rangers vs. Padres, Angels vs. Giants

We’ll dive into the series finale between the Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres at Globe Life Field as well as the finale between the Los Angeles Angels and San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park as we highlight our two best bets for Thursday evening.

Texas Rangers (10-13) at San Diego Padres (14-12), 8:10 p.m. ET

Both the offenses of the Rangers and Padres are clicking at the moment, so they should have no trouble exceeding the total on Thursday night.

Texas starter Kyle Gibson is off to a decent start from an ERA standpoint (3.74), but he’s still allowing batters to hit .278 against him, in line with his career .271 opponent batting average. Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer and third baseman Manny Machado are 17-for-59 combined (.288) off Gibson, so he’ll have to watch out for them, as well as the streaking Jurickson Profar (.327 average over his last 37 at-bats). And we would be remiss not to mention the brilliant Fernando Tatis Jr., who has six hits – including three homers and eight RBI –  in this series. This surging Padres offense (7.33 runs per game last five contests) should relish their late-game at-bats with the Rangers’ 22nd-ranked bullpen by ERA (5.44).

San Diego starter Dinelson Lamet (2-1, 1.59 ERA) should hold down the fort for a while, but things may get hairy late when the Padres’ awful relief corps (26th by ERA at 5.96) gets summoned into action. Texas’ offense has averaged a respectable 4.6 runs per game over their last 10 tilts, with Joey Gallo (1.125 OPS last seven days) swinging a particularly hot bat at the moment.

MLB pick: Over

Los Angeles Angels (8-17) at San Francisco Giants (10-16), 9:45 p.m. ET

Neither starter – Jose Suarez for the Angels and Kevin Gausman for the Giants – look like they’ll last especially long in this one, and neither man can rely on their bullpen to bail them out, so look for runs to be plated early and often.

Suarez makes his season debut off a dismal 2019 in which he was 2-6 with a 7.11 ERA and .304 opponent batting average. San Francisco’s sluggers are averaging 5.1 runs per game over their last 10 contests, with outfielder Mike Yastrzemski doing the most damage of late (1.157 OPS last seven days). Suarez is backed by an Angels bullpen that’s just 19th in ERA in 2020 (4.64).

Gausman has fared poorly in prior meetings with third baseman Anthony Rendon and center fielder Mike Trout, as they’ve combined to go 14-for-41 (.341) against him with four home runs. Unfortunately for Gausman, and the Giants’ 28th-rated bullpen by ERA (6.08), both Rendon and Trout have an OPS of over 1.000 for the month of August.

MLB pick: Over