The New York Mets have regained the NL East lead, as they’ve won their past seven games, which include sweeps over the Los Angeles Angels and San Francisco Giants. Now New York will try to extend its winning streak against another West Coast team, as the San Diego Padres host the Mets for a three-game series. The first battle between these playoff contenders is on Monday night at 9:40 p.m. ET on MLB Network. 

Baseball fans looking to get into MLB betting at the top sportsbooks can get the latest Mets vs. Padres predictions and player props from the SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every game 10,000 times. 

New York will turn to Frankie Montas for the start tonight, and Montas has gone 3-1 with a 4.62 ERA in his five previous outings this season. He’s had mixed results in his two previous road starts, giving up one run in five innings against the Royals and six runs in four innings against the Pirates. The Padres will counter with Dylan Cease (3-10, 4.59 ERA), who has picked up a loss in four of his past five starts. 

Cease’s strikeout prop at FanDuel Sportsbook is at 6.5 (Over -130, Under +102), while Montas resides at 4.5 (Over +106, Under -140). The SportsLine Projection Model has calculated 4.7 strikeouts for Montas, making his Over 4.5 punchouts a 3.5-star play out of 5 stars. Cease is projected for 6.6 strikeouts, making that Over a 3-star commendation. 

Mets outfielder Juan Soto faces his former team and has the shortest odds to homer on Monday night at +320. Soto hit his 25th home run of the season on Sunday against the Giants after not leaving the yard in his previous seven contests. After Soto on the home run odds board are Manny Machado (+350), Pete Alonso (+370), Fernando Tatis Jr. (+390) and Francisco Lindor (+400). 

The Padres are -131 favorites (wager $131 to win $100) in the latest SportsLine consensus odds, while the Mets are +109 (wager $100 to win $109) underdogs. The total now sits at 8 after it first opened at 8.5. You can find the model’s latest projections and expert picks for Mets-Padres at SportsLine.

Here are the SportsLine model’s projections for Mets vs. Padres on Monday.

NEW YORK METS at SAN DIEGO PADRES | 7/28 | 9:40 p.m. ET

Money line
Pick: Padres -131
San Diego wins in 56% of simulations

Run line
Pick: Mets +1.5 (-195)
New York covers in 67% of simulations, bringing value at these odds

Over/Under
Pick: Over 8 (-111)
The Over hits in 50.9% of simulations

Projected score: Padres 4.5, Mets 4.3