As we look forward to the weekend series, the tightest race in baseball remains in the NL West. San Diego continues a four-game series in St. Louis while San Francisco welcomes to the Brewers to the Bay Area for a three-game set. The Padres dropped the first game of the series Thursday night. That loss, coupled with a San Francisco win, put the Giants in first place in the West entering Friday. Basketball Betting Lines

SAN DIEGO PADRES
at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

St Louis has been in a freefall lately. The Cards have lost seven of their last 10 games and sit seven games behind the Reds in the Central. However, Tony La Russa’s bunch has been happy to see the Padres lately. St Louis is 14-4 (+9.3 Units) against San Diego over the last three seasons, and 8-0 (+8.0 Units) against the Padres at home over that span. Friday’s pitching matchup pits Mat Latos (14-6, 2.43 ERA) against Kyle Lohse (3-7, 6.85 ERA) while Saturday will feature Chris Young (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Jeff Suppan (1-7, 5.85 ERA). Jon Garland (14-11, 3.49 ERA) and Adam Wainwright (18-11, 2.50 ERA) will close out the series on Sunday. Baseball Lines

A few FoxSheets trends that could influence wagering on this series include:

Padres coach BUD BLACK is 2-16 (-13.5 Units) against the money line in road games vs. excellent defensive catchers – allowing <=0.35 SB’s/game as the manager of SAN DIEGO. The average score was SAN DIEGO 3.3, OPPONENT 6.0 – (Rating = 2*).

SAN DIEGO is 23-8 (+14.3 Units) against the money line against NL Central opponents this season. The average score was SAN DIEGO 4.5, OPPONENT 2.5 – (Rating = 2*).

6 of 8 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons. (Over=+3.8 Units).

MILWAUKEE BREWERS
at SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

After winning nine of their last 12 games, the Giants hold a slim half-game lead on San Diego entering the weekend. The Brewers come to town after dropping two-of-three to the Astros in Houston. Randy Wolf (11-11, 4.53 ERA) gets the start for Milwaukee on Friday. He’ll be opposed by Madison Bumgarner (5-5, 3.28 ERA). Bumgarner has been sensational lately with an ERA of 0.89 over his last three starts. He silenced Milwaukee on July 6, going eight shutout innings and allowing only three hits. Baseball Betting Lines

Saturday’s scheduled starters are Yovani Gallardo (12-7, 3.64 ERA) and Tim Lincecum (14-9, 3.60 ERA) while Chris Narveson (11-7. 5.05 ERA) and Barry Zito (8-13, 4.02 ERA) wrap things up on Sunday.

Here’s a look at some trends that might affect the outcome of this series in the Giants favor:

SAN FRANCISCO is 4-0 (+4.3 Units) against MILWAUKEE this season.

5 of 6 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons. (Over=+4.2 Units).

SAN FRANCISCO is 36-20 (+13.1 Units) against the money line vs. teams whose hitters strike out 7 or more times/game in the second half of the season this season. The average score was SAN FRANCISCO 4.8, OPPONENT 3.6 – (Rating = 2*).

SAN FRANCISCO is 42-26 (+14.5 Units) against the money line vs. teams averaging 2.75 or less extra base hits per game in the second half of the season this season. The average score was SAN FRANCISCO 4.5, OPPONENT 3.7 – (Rating = 2*).