MLB Baseball
2026-08-05 - San Diego Padres at Arizona Diamondbacks
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : Major League Baseball
Wednesday 5th August 2026 - Scheduled 9:40pm EST
2:40am (British Time)
Preview
Chasing down the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West looks beyond the other four teams in the Division, but the two rivals in this series are playing one another knowing how important the tie-breakers may end up being when it comes to the final Wild Card standings.
If the season was to end today, the Arizona Diamondbacks (60-54) would be holding the third Wild Card spot in the National League.
It would also mean the San Diego Padres (59-55) have missed out by a single game and that just underlines how important the head to head is going to be when all is decided at the end of the regular season. Both teams will be confident they have made moves at the trade deadline that should push them into the post-season and great expectations remain around both organisations.
One of the big trade moves made by the San Diego Padres will be assessed on Wednesday when they send Casey Mize to the mound after bringing him in from the Detroit Tigers. Rivals Los Angeles Dodgers may have produced the biggest splash by bringing in a starting pitcher from the Tigers, but the Padres should be really confident in what Casey Mize can bring to the team the rest of the way.
Casey Mize spent his entire Major League career with the Detroit Tigers and now has to change uniform and pitch in the National League rather than the American League. He has a 4-6 record from sixteen starts this season, but that felt like a Tigers batting problem considering Casey Mize has a 2.70 ERA, which is on course to be a career best mark.
Injuries have been a bit of an issue, but Casey Mize put together a 2-1 record and 2.20 ERA in his final five starts for the Detroit Tigers. Casey Mize began his season by throwing 6 Innings in this ballpark and holding the Arizona Diamondbacks to a single run, but he did not factor into the decision and the Detroit bullpen could not back Mize up.
Arizona will counter by handing the ball to Mitch Bratt who has a 0-1 record and 5.23 ERA from the five starts made in this rookie campaign.
In the last couple of starts, Mitch Bratt has been handed a bit more rope and completed 5 Innings both times, albeit with different results. The first of those ended with a decision loss after Bratt allowed five runs, but he bounced back to restrict the Cleveland Guardians to a single run most recently.
The Padres levelled up the series on Tuesday after dropping the Monday opener and there are still two more games to play. San Diego and the Arizona Diamondbacks have met eight times in 2026 and those games have been split with four wins apiece.
Prediction
There is going to be some pressure on the shoulders of Casey Mize knowing the expectations the fans will have around his trade.
Moving teams for the first time is one challenge, but doing that mid-season is always more difficult, and that is the test facing Casey Mize who is thrown into the deep end by the San Diego Padres.
He has handled most tests pretty well this season though and Mize can out-duel Mitch Bratt to help the Padres win this game against Divisional and Wild Card rivals Arizona Diamondbacks and the rookie pitcher they are sending to the mound.
The Pick :
Arizona Diamondbacks 3-5 San Diego Padres
