It’s Friday, July 25 and the Padres (55-48) are in St. Louis to take on the Cardinals (53-51). Nick Pivetta is slated to take the mound for San Diego against Miles Mikolas for St. Louis.

The Padres have dropped three consecutive games, losing two straight and the series to the Marlins, then the opener to the Cardinals. St. Louis won 9-7 as Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan hit three-run homers in a six-run second inning to pull ahead.

Let’s dive into the matchup and find a sweat or two. We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on how to catch first pitch, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.

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Game details & how to watch Padres at Cardinals

• Date: Friday, July 25, 2025
• Time: 7:15PM EST
• Site: Busch Stadium
• City: St. Louis, MO
• Network/Streaming: SDPA, FDSNMW

Never miss a second of the action and stay up-to-date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day MLB schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game with every out.

Odds for the Padres at the Cardinals

The latest odds as of Friday:

• Moneyline: Padres (-135), Cardinals (+114)
• Spread:  Padres -1.5
• Total: 8.0 runs

Probable starting pitchers for Padres at Cardinals

• Pitching matchup for July 25, 2025: Nick Pivetta vs. Miles Mikolas
  • Padres: Nick Pivetta, (10-2, 2.81 ERA)
    Last outing: 1.50 ERA, 1 Earned Runs Allowed, 3 Hits Allowed, 1 Walks, and 5 Strikeouts
  • Cardinals: Miles Mikolas, (5-7, 5.20 ERA)
    Last outing: 11.25 ERA, 5 Earned Runs Allowed, 4 Hits Allowed, 2 Walks, and 3 Strikeouts

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Expert picks & predictions for tonight’s game between the Padres and the Cardinals

Rotoworld Best Bet

Vaughn Dalzell (@VmoneySports) likes the Padres to be in the postseason mix:

“Looking at the second half of the year per Tankathon, San Diego has the 4th-easiest strength of schedule remaining

The Padres open the second-half with three games at the Nationals (2-1 record), three more at the Marlins (1-2 record), then to St. Louis for three more road games as part of a nine-game East Coast road trip.

After that nine-game road trip, the next 27 games will be on the West Coast for San Diego, whether they are in California, Arizona or Washington (the state). San Diego will be in a prime position to make a run at the playoffs, but I still haven’t gotten to the best part.

The final month of the season is a great opportunity for the Padres to gain ground too — in the final 28 games — 13 of those are against the Orioles, White Sox, and Rockies!

I love the Padres to make the postseason as a second-half futures bet.”

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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts.

Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.

Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Friday’s game between the Padres and the Cardinals:

• Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the San Diego Padres on the Moneyline.
• Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the St. Louis Cardinals at +1.5.
• Total: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the over on the Game Total of 8.0.

Want even more MLB best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert MLB Predictions page from NBC.

Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Padres at Cardinals

• San Diego has lost three straight games
• San Diego is 4-1 in the last five starts for Pivetta
• The Cardinals have lost 7 of their last 10 games
• In the Cardinals’ home games last season with Miles Mikolas on the mound the Over was 11-4 (73%)
• The Cardinals have covered in their last 3 games against the Padres

If you’re looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports!

Follow our experts on socials to keep up with all the latest content from the staff:

• Jay Croucher (@croucherJD)
• Drew Dinsick (@whale_capper)
• Vaughn Dalzell (@VmoneySports)
• Trysta Krick (@Trysta_Krick)