St. Louis Cardinals at San Diego Padres 5/16/21 - MLB Picks & Predictions

The St. Louis Cardinals will close out a three-game series at Petco Park against the San Diego Padres on Sunday Night Baseball. The Cardinals are a legit threat in the National League this season and after winning six of their last ten games are leading the NL Central by 3 games sitting at 23-16. San Diego is also a contender and after winning the series opener over the Cardinals are 1.5 games behind the Giants in the NL West.

San Diego has a great offensive lineup but injuries and sluggish starts have limited their production, the Padres are hitting .231 as a team and scoring 4.1 runs per game, ranking 18th and 22nd in the MLB respectively. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado have anchored the left side of the infield and are two of the best hitters in the lineup; Tatis is hitting .240 with a team-high 9 homeruns and driven in 14 runs. Machado has driven in a team-high 24 runs but is hitting just .236. First baseman Eric Hosmer is having one of the best starts of his career, he’s hitting .305 with 4 homers and 21 RBIs.

The left-hander Ryan Weathers will get his 4th start, and 9th appearance of the season, he’s been very solid this season going 2-1 with a 0.81 ERA. Weathers has allowed just 9 hits, and issued 7 walks, in his 22 innings of work; he had a solid outing his last time out going 3 scoreless innings in a relief effort, allowing a hit, and striking out three. 

St. Louis is an average offensive unit hitting .233 as a team ranking 17th in the MLB and are 12th in the league in scoring offense averaging 4.46 runs per game. Offseason acquisition Nolan Arenado is having a solid start to the year, hitting .294 with 7 homeruns and 25 RBIs. He’s been one of the best third basemen in baseball for the last 5 years and has been a big boost to the Cardinals lineup. Left fielder Tyler O’Neill has hit a team-high 8 homeruns and driven in 18 runs. 

Kwang Hyun Kim will hope to continue his dominant start to the MLB after a long run in the KBO, it’s his second year in the MLB and he’s 1-0 with a 2.74 ERA in his 5 starts this season. Kim has a career 2.03 ERA and a 2.8 K/BB ratio in his 13 big league starts and is coming off a very solid outing pitching 5 ⅓ innings allowing 5 hits and a run while striking out 6.