The St. Louis Cardinals (21-15) travel to Petco Park for a three-game set versus the Padres (22-14) in San Diego. St. Louis is one of the hottest teams in the league at 7-2 over the past nine games, while San Diego is 3-1 in the last four after suffering a four-game losing streak.
St. Louis ranks ninth in batting average (.261) over the last week, while the pitching staff is 14th in ERA (3.50). The Cardinals are an impressive 11-5 on the road this season, but haven’t posted the most spectacle numbers. St. Louis’ team ERA drops to 4.72 (20th) and the offense dips too with a .233 batting average (20th).
San Diego has won the last two games and three of the past four to break their cold streak. The Padres offense is hitting .223 over the last six games (24th), but has 15 runs scored in the last two contests off 20 combined hits. The Padres are 1-4 in the last five at home and scored four or fewer runs in all five. We will see what offense we get from San Diego tonight.
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 the 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 Cardinals at Padres
- Date: Thursday, May 7, 2026
- Time: 10:00 PM EST
- Site: Petco Park
- City: San Diego, CA
- Network/Streaming: ESPN
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Odds for the Cardinals at the Padres
The latest odds as of Thursday:
- Moneyline: San Diego Padres (-175), St. Louis Cardinals (+144)
- Spread: Cardinals +1.5 (-143), Padres -1.5 (+119)
- Total: 8.0
Probable starting pitchers for Cardinals at Padres
- Thursday’s pitching matchup (May 7): Michael King vs. Matthew Liberatore
- Padres: Michael King
2026 stats: 39.2 IP, 3-2, 2.95 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 39 Ks, 18 BB
- Cardinals: Matthew Liberatore
2026 Stats: 36.0 IP, 1-1, 4.50 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 23 Ks, 13 BB
Who’s Hot? Who’s Not!
- The Cardinals’ Jordan Walker is hitting .303 with 40 hits and 76 total bases over 132 at-bats
- The Cardinals’ Nolan Gorman is hitting .227 with 27 hits and 37 strikeouts over 119 at-bats
- The Padres’ Xander Bogaerts is hitting .276 with 35 hits and 58 total bases over 127 at-bats
- The Padres’ Jake Croneworth is hitting .144 with 14 hits and 23 strikeouts over 97 at-bats
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Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Cardinals at Padres
- The Cardinals are 22-14 ATS this season
- The Padres are 21-15 ATS this season
- The Cardinals are 19-15-2 to the Over this season
- The Padres are 16-19-1 to the Over this season
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!
Expert picks & predictions for tonight’s game between the Cardinals and the Padres
Rotoworld Bet Best 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 Thursday’s game two between the Cardinals and the Padres:
- Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the Padres on the Moneyline.
- Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the Padres at -1.5.
- Total: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the Under on the Game Total of 8.0
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