Padres vs. Rangers Prediction The San Diego Padres and host Texas Rangers are in last place in their respective divisions entering tonight's series opener. Will San Diego carve out a win tonight despite only being 1-7 over its last eight games? Game Snapshot 919 San Diego Padres vs. 920 Texas Rangers Monday, June 25, 2018 Globe Life Park at 8:05PM ET TV: FSSW (TEX) Compare odds from multiple different online sportsbooks and shop for the best lines at our newBaseball Odds & Betting Page. Public Betting Information According to oddsmakers, the Rangers are a -146 favorite to win on the moneyline. The Padres are a +136 underdog, while the total is set at 9.5 runs. As of Monday morning, 63 percent of public bets are siding with host Texas. Check out our MLB Public Betting Page for the latest info. Padres drop three of four at Giants San Diego lost 3-2 Sunday afternoon in its series finale at San Francisco as it lost three of four in the series against its NL West rival. Manuel Margot helped pace the offense as he went 1-for-4 with a solo home run, a walk and two runs. Brad Hand suffered the loss in relief as he allowed two earned runs on two hits with one walk and one strikeout over one-third of an inning. Rangers have seven-game win streak snapped Texas was shut out by a count of 2-0 Sunday afternoon at Minneosta, which brought its seven-game winning streak to an end. Shin-Soo Choo helped pace the Rangers offense as he finished 1-for-3 with a double and a walk. Adrian Beltre was also 1-for-3 with a walk, while Rougned Odor went 1-for-3 as well. Bartolo Colon suffered the loss as he gave up two earned runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and one walk over seven innings. Joey Lucchesi (3-3, 3.86 ERA) will start today for San Diego, while Cole Hamels (4-6, 3.41) will get the nod for Texas. MLB Betting Trends San Diego The Padres are 0-4 in their last four games vs. the AL West. San Diego is 1-5 in its last six road games. Texas The Rangers are 7-1 in their last eight games vs. a team with a losing overall record. Texas is 1-6 in its last seven games following a loss. Prediction: With San Diego playing bad baseball as of late and Hamels looking sharp much of this season, I think he'll baffle the Padres bats here. San Diego has an overly aggressive lineup and Hamels is the kind of wily veteran who can take advantage. Although the bats went cold yesterday, I expect Texas' offense to bounce back strong at home today. MLB DAILY PREDICTION: TEXAS RANGERS -146<doc-sep>The Texas Rangers look to take another one from the San Diego Padres today, and although Nomar Mazara left yesterday’s game early with a tight hamstring, he is back in the lineup today at the DH spot. Ronald Guzman, however, who was pulled from yesterday’s game after banging his head into Christian Villanueva’s knee, and who was placed in the MLB Concussion Protocol, is not in the lineup. Jurickson Profar is taking his place at first base. The lineup: Choo — RF Elvis — SS Mazara — DH Beltre — 3B Odor — 2B Profar — 1B Chirinos — C Gallo — LF DeShields — CF Austin Bibens-Dirkx is on the mound for Texas.<doc-sep>Texas Rangers players Ronald Guzman and Nomar Mazara left yesterday’s game against the San Diego Padres prematurely due to injuries — Guzman due to banging his head into the knee of third baseman Christian Villanueva, putting him in concussion protocol and Mazara due to tweaking his hamstring beating out an infield single. Neither injury appears serious enough that either player will need to miss a significant amount of time, but the Rangers may be forced to make a roster move before today’s game due to roster construction issues. Texas currently has a three man bench — Jurickson Profar is a utility infielder of sorts (though he’s playing basically every day), Isiah Kiner-Falefa is a utility infielder who is also the backup catcher, and Carlos Tocci is a backup outfielder. Utilizing a three man bench means that the Rangers can keep eight pitchers in the bullpen, and gives them the luxury of, for example, having both Jesse Chavez and Matt Moore as long man types out there. The problem with a three man bench, however, is that if a position player is knicked up and potentially out for a game or two, you are perilously thin in regards to depth. Losing Mazara and Guzman yesterday left the Rangers with just IKF on the bench by game’s end, and if either or both players are limited or unavailable today, that leaves the Rangers bench short-handed. Combine that with Joey Gallo nursing a hamstring issue — which took him out of the game early on Saturday, and limited him to DH duty on Sunday — and the Rangers are in danger of running out of bodies who can play in the field. Thus, it seems likely we will see someone like Ryan Rua or Drew Robinson, who can provide some defensive versatility off the bench, or possibly even Willie Calhoun, to fortify the ranks for the time being. With a 13 man pitching staff and off days Thursday and Monday, one possibility would be to drop a pitcher temporarily to add a position player, buying yourself more time to determine whether Guzman or Mazara will need a trip to the disabled list. The problem is a lack of viable optionable arms, however. Austin Bibens-Dirkx could be optioned, with the Rangers shuffling the rotation to utilize the off days to allow them to use four starters for the time being, but Bibens-Dirkx is pitching today, so that’s not realistic. The other optionable bullpen arms would be Jose Leclerc and Alex Claudio, but it seems unlikely the team would want to lose having either of them right now. Otherwise, you’d be looking at cutting someone like Yovani Gallardo or Matt Moore. Gallardo, however, was just brought up to fortify the rotation, and I don’t think the Rangers are looking to move on from him already. Moore, meanwhile, has shown some improvement out of the bullpen of late — its possible they cut ties with Moore, but I don’t know that that’s the move at this point. My guess at this point is that Guzman, who is already in the concussion protocol, gets put on the 7 day concussion disabled list. Its a way to be conservative with him and make sure he’s healthy, and due to the off days he would only miss five games if he’s able to be activated after the seven days. It would allow the Rangers to get another position player up to be available as insurance as Mazara and Gallo deal with their hamstring issues, and as Adrian Beltre continues to have his playing time monitored as he deals with his balky legs.<doc-sep>
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Shin-Soo Choo extended his career-best on-base streak to 38 games with three hits, including the tiebreaking RBI single in a strange five-run outburst, and the Texas Rangers beat the San Diego Padres 7-4 on Monday night. Robinson Chirinos drove in runs with both of his hits for Texas, which has won eight of its last nine games. All five Rangers runs in that decisive sixth inning came after it appeared that Chirinos had struck out for the second out with two runners on base. It looked like catcher Austin Hedges had the ball secured in his mitt that kicked up the dirt when he reached down. Home plate umpire Tony Randazzo initially indicated Chirinos was out. But that was changed to a foul ball after a discussion among all four umpires, and Chirinos lined an RBI single to left on the next pitch by Craig Stammen (4-1), the third Padres pitcher. Ronald Guzman then hit a deep flyball misplayed by right fielder Hunter Renfroe. Guzman wound up at second on the error and was credited with a sac fly that got the Rangers within 4-3. Delino DeShields and Choo followed with consecutive RBI singles before Elvis Andrus hit a sac fly. Chirinos added an RBI double in the seventh. San Diego (35-46) reached the midpoint of its season by losing for the eighth time in nine games. Tony Barnette (2-0) retired all three batters he faced after Manuel Margo and Jose Pirela homered off Rangers starter Cole Hamels. Keone Kela worked the nine for his 19th save, the most in the majors without a blown chance. Margo’s three-run homer in the fifth produced the game’s first runs. Pirela went deep to start the sixth for a 4-1 lead and chase Hamels. San Diego starter Joey Lucchesi allowed only one hit over four scoreless innings. But the lefty was limited to 70 pitches in only his second start after being out more than a month because of a right-hip strain. TRAINER’S ROOM Padres: Manager Andy Green said an MRI on the pitching elbow of RHP Jordan Lyles showed that he does just have inflammation. Lyles was scratched from his scheduled start Saturday after feeling discomfort while warming up. Lyles will rejoin the team in Texas, but won’t start throwing again before the weekend. Rangers: Guzman was going through MLB concussion protocol after leaving the game in the sixth. His head struck the knee of third baseman Christian Villanueva when diving back on an attempted pickoff by Hedges. … LHP Martin Perez (right elbow) began an injury rehab assignment at Class-A Hickory with nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings against Augusta. UP NEXT Padres right-hander Tyson Ross (5-5), who received no run support in his last two starts, faces the team he pitched for last year. Ross was 3-3 with a 7.71 ERA in 12 games in his only season with the Rangers after previously being with San Diego from 2013-16. ——