<p>After leading their division near all year long and winning 101 games the Mets settled for a wild-card playoff berth. But New York gets to host this best-of-three National League wild-card series against the Padres, which begins Friday night.</p>
<p>Max Scherzer hits the hill for the home team in Game 1 against Yu Darvish for San Diego.</p>
<p>Who do we like for our free Game 1 pick?</p>
<h2>MLB Betting Odds</h2>
<p>The wild-card baseball betting lines opened New York and Scherzer at around -130 over San Diego and Darvish, with an over/under of six runs. Early betting action then goosed the Mets 15 cents to -145.</p>
<p>New York is also a -175 favorite to win this wild-card series, with San Diego getting +155 as the underdog.</p>
<h2>Padres-Mets Game 1 Betting Preview</h2>
<p>San Diego played 89-73 this season, good for a distant second in the NL West, but claimed the No. 2 spot in the NL wild-card standings. So the Padres are back in the playoffs for the second time in the last three seasons.</p>
<p>San Diego also played over its season wins over/under of 88.5 by half a game.</p>
<p>The Padres just finished their regular season by taking two of three games from San Francisco earlier this week but they also sputtered down the stretch a bit, losing seven of their last 13 games.</p>
<p>New York, meanwhile, played 101-61 this season to tie with Atlanta for first place in the NL East. But the Mets, after leading the division almost all year, got swept three games by the Braves last weekend, which cost them the season series with Atlanta, the division title and the wild-card bye.</p>
<p>Nonetheless New York is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2016.</p>
<p>The Mets also played over their season wins O/U of 90.5.</p>
<p>New York finished up by sweeping three games from Washington earlier this week and won 10 of its last 16 overall.</p>
<p>The Mets beat San Diego by 12 games in the regular-season standings but the Padres took the season series from New York four games to two.</p>
<h2>Game 1 Pitching Match-Up </h2>
<p>Scherzer hit 15/23 on quality starts this season and finished three for his last five. Last Saturday he gave up four runs and nine hits through 5 2/3 innings of a 4-2 New York loss to the Braves. But over his four starts previous to that he allowed just three runs and 11 hits through 24 innings, with three walks against 32 strikeouts.</p>
<p>The Mets are 14-9 with Scherzer this season and that’s probably three or four games worse than they should be, based on his performances.</p>
<p>In his one start against San Diego this season, back in July, Scherzer gave up two runs and five hits through six innings, with one walk and eight whiffs, although New York lost that game 4-1.</p>
<p>Darvish hit 20/30 on quality starts this year and finished three for his last four. Last Thursday he gave up three runs and eight hits through six frames of a 3-1 Padres loss to White Sox. But over his last four starts he allowed just five runs and 16 hits through 26 innings, with three walks and 29 K’s.</p>
<p>San Diego played 18-12 with Darvish this season and that’s at least a couple games worse than it should be.</p>
<p>Over two starts this season against the Mets Darvish gave up just one run and six hits through 14 innings, with one walk and 15 strikeouts. San Diego won both those games.</p>
<p>18-12 with Darvish this season</p>
<h2>Splits With the Sticks</h2>
<p>San Diego batted .239 against right-handed pitching this season, with a .317 team OBP and a .380 team slugging percentage.</p>
<p>New York slashed .265/.336/.420 against right-handed pitching. Numbers like those lead us to rank this line-up among the top five in Baseball in this split.</p>
<h2>The Bullpens</h2>
<p>The Mets bullpen posted a 3.55 ERA this season, along with a 1.22 WHIP and a 3.30 K/BB ratio.</p>
<p>The Padres pen put up a 3.83 ERA, a 1.21 WHIP and a 2.94 K/BB ratio.
</p>
<p><section></p>
<ul>
<li>
<span style="font-size:16px; color:#008000;">Get more details:</span> <a href="https://www.sportsbettingstats.com/mlb/matchup/1771971">San Diego at NY Mets 10/7/22 Betting Stats</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p></section></p>
<h2>MLB Betting Trends</h2>
<ul>
<li>San Diego played 45-36 on the road this season and 58-50 against right-handed starters.</li>
<li>New York played 54-27 at home and 69-38 against right-handed starters.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Totals Report</h2>
<ul>
<li>The unders played 82-75 in Padres games this season.</li>
<li>The overs played 85-69 in Mets games.</li>
<li>The overs played 42-35 at Citi Field this season.</li>
</ul>