Detroit Tigers vs San Diego Padres Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 03/27/26

The Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres will play the second game of their opening series on Friday night. The Tigers won the opener, 8-2. They got 6.0 scoreless innings from Tarik Skubal, as everyone has come to expect. The real story of the game, though, was rookie shortstop Kevin McGonigle — who collected 4 hits in his Major League debut. On Friday, both teams send strong starting pitchers to the mound in Framber Valdez and Michael King — and I expect a low-scoring contest. The game total is low at 7.5, but I like the under.

Valdez will be making his Tigers debut after moving over from Houston in the offseason. Valdez had a tumultuous end to his time in Houston and will want to start strong with his new club. King was limited to just 15 starts last season, and health is always the question with him. When he is right, however, he is really good. Neither team used most of its best bullpen arms on Thursday, either, so we would expect them to get those guys into the game on Friday — if only to get their season started. It is a little risky to trust pitchers the first time through the rotation, but these are 2 good arms followed by 2 solid bullpens. The chances of a low-scoring game are high.

Tigers vs Padres prediction: Under 7.5 (-115) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.