San Diego Padres vs. Tampa Bay Rays Preview - June 22nd

One of the best teams in the National League travel to Tropicana Field to take on an American League team that is at the top of its game. The San Diego Padres make the cross country trek to the Tampa Bay area to battle the Tampa Bay Rays in what should prove to be a very hard fought matchup that will be the first game of a great series. The Padres have been very successful on the road this season while the Rays have been average at home so far. Rays management understands that they will need to improve their play at the Trop in order to recognize the type of success that is necessary to win a World Championship. For this game, however, two great pitching staffs will square off, which leads one to believe that the free wager prediction of betsfreebets.com of this game going UNDER the posted total is a very accurate assessment. Save for Kevin Correia, whose ERA currently stands above 5.00, the starting pitching has been absolutely superb so far this season. As the season continues, they will keep progressing and getting better, which means bad things are ahead for those teams in the National League West. Clayton Richard and Mat Latos, two of the youngest pitchers on the staff, have played exceptionally well throughout the entire early portion of the season, and Jon Garland has started to find both his velocity and control once again. Garland, who had his most successful years with the White Sox, is pitching just as good or even better than he was at that point in his career. The pitchers have needed to be good simply because the hitting has not been anything too special. Adrian Gonzalez has really begun to hit the ball well for both contact and power, as he currently has 15 HR and 44 RBI. Other than Gonzalez, though, there is no one on the team with over 7 HR. This is one of the deciding factors behind the pick for the game to go under the total for your free bet. While there have been some outstanding hitters for the Rays so far this season, there has really been no hitting for a great deal of power, except for Carlos Pena who is currently hitting at a .196 pace. Reid Brignac and John Jaso have both been good young players for the Rays even though neither one has shown an overabundance of power up to this point. On the mound, David Price and Jeff Niemann have been absolutely lights out for the Rays this year. Both players have a complete game shutout on their season records, and they both have been outstanding to the tune of Price going 10-2 and Niemann going 6-1 up to this point. The bullpen has also been very good with Joaquin Benoit, Rafael Soriano, and Grant Balfour all having ERAs under 2.00. They will need all the good pitching they can get against a good team like the Padres who do not allow a great deal of runs themselves. This lack of run scoring is the main reason behind the UNDER suggestion for any bettor's free wager on the game. Don't be surprised to see one or two runs win this game for either team. They are both very skilled at pitching the baseball and still leave something to be desired at the plate. It is the opinion of betsfreebets.com that this game will most definitely go UNDER the total for anyone looking to place a free bet on this game.