Padres Weekly Preview

The offense has been coming around of late for the Cards. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

Cardinals Preview

The Padres finish off the week with a 4 game series against the Cardinals in St. Louis, hoping to repeat their success at Petco against the Redbirds. St. Louis overall has not taken advantage of the struggles of the others in their division, and are likely hoping to capitalize on a 4 game series against the Padres at home. In fact they need to. Newcomer John Lackey was rocked in his first start for the team, but still has a proven pedigree of coming up big when it counts. See World Series 2013 and 2002. He gets the ball in game 1 of the series against Eric Stults and hopes to set the tone for the series.

The Cardinals have gone 6-4 in their least ten games but are still just 2 games back of the Brewers who have proven all year long that they are for real. Their pitching trio of Lohse, Gallardo, and Garza has proven enough to best Wainwright, Lynn, and Lackey.

 I expect the Padres to keep rolling offensively against the Cardinals and Lackey but they will likely lose to Wainwright, who has been the absolute best pitcher in the National League this side of Clayton Kershaw and Tyson Ross over the last two months.