First pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Diego Padres game is set for 10:00 p.m. ET on ESPN\u00a0on Thursday, May 7, with the Padres entering as home favorites and returning a 1.56x payout on PrizePicks Team Picks if they win.<\/p>\n
Today is the opener of a four-game series between these teams. The Cardinals and Padres will play a total of seven outings against each other this season, with the next series scheduled for mid-June.<\/p>\n
Below, we’ll break down our Cardinals vs. Padres prediction and picks for Thursday\u2019s MLB game, including the spread, over\/under, and key player picks for PrizePicks.<\/p>\n
Make your picks<\/a> for Cardinals vs. Padres on PrizePicks now.<\/p>\n {{mlb_offer_banner=”\/style-system\/ui-components-playbook”}}<\/p>\n ><\/p>\n Cardinals vs. Padres Prediction, Winner Payout, Over\/Under \u2013 Thursday, May 7<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a strong start to the season for the Cardinals. They hold a record of 21-15, have won seven of their last 10 games, and sit just 3.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs for first place in the National League Central<\/a>.<\/p>\n St. Louis’ pitching has been subpar \u2014\u00a0the rotation ranks 22nd with an xFIP of 4.43, and the bullpen is 25th with an xFIP of 4.69. However, the Cards’ offense has carried the load, ranking ninth with a 107 wRC+. <\/p>\n The Padres are off to an equally nice start. They’re 22-14, are winners in back-to-back games, and sit just a half game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the NL West.<\/p>\n San Diego has accomplished this almost exclusively through the strength of a dominant bullpen. The Padres’ pen has the second-best xFIP in the majors (3.43) and has locked down games in which the club’s 19th-ranked offense (92 wRC+) has provided minimal run support. <\/p>\n Cardinals vs. Padres Winner Payout, Over\/Under \u2013 Thursday, May 7<\/p>\n The Padres enter Thursday\u2019s game as home favorites against the Cardinals, returning a 1.56x payout if they win outright, via PrizePicks Team Picks.<\/p>\n Here are the full payouts for the Cardinals vs. Padres game on PrizePicks.<\/p>\n Spread: San Diego Padres -1.5 (2.17x payout)Over\/Under: 8.5 (1.96x payout on Over)Game Winner Payout: Cardinals – 2.32x | Padres – 1.56x<\/p>\n Play the Cardinals vs. Padres spread or over\/under<\/a> on PrizePicks Team Picks to earn real money \u2014 available in 35 states!<\/p>\n Team Picks data is live at the time of writing and is subject to change.<\/p>\n ><\/p>\n Cardinals vs. Padres Prediction on Spread \u2013 5\/7\/26<\/p>\n Here are the key game stats and trends behind our Cardinals vs. Padres prediction on the spread for Thursday, May 7.<\/p>\n Lock in your Cardinals vs. Padres prediction on PrizePicks<\/a> before the line moves.<\/p>\n Both teams hold impressive against-the-spread (ATS) records to begin 2026. Over a larger sample size in 2025, however, the Padres were better by posting a 90-75 (54.6%) ATS\u00a0mark. The Cardinals, meanwhile, were near the bottom in terms of covering with a 78-84 ATS\u00a0record. Could the Padres’ batting order be due for some positive regression?\u00a0They’re in the bottom five with a .276 BABIP, well below the league average of .290. Despite their record, the Cardinals have the second-worst run differential in the division.San Diego could have a complete pitching edge on Thursday night. The Padres will be rolling out SP\u00a0Michael King (8.85 K\/9, 4.20 xFIP) while the Cardinals aim to get it done with SP\u00a0Matthew Liberatore (5.75 K\/9, 4.92 xFIP).<\/p>\n ><\/p>\n Cardinals vs. Padres Player Picks, Stats for PrizePicks:\u00a05\/7\/26<\/p>\n Here are the top Cardinals vs. Padres picks to target on PrizePicks for Thursday, May 7. Today\u2019s MLB picks for PrizePicks include SPs Matthew Liberatore and Michael King.<\/p>\n Cardinals P Matthew Liberatore vs. Padres Projection: 17.5 OutsLibby has an ERA of 4.5 but an xERA of 5.8, implying that he’s outperforming his expected data and could be in for some regression soon. He is walking 3.25 batters per nine innings, his highest walk rate in the last three seasons. That doesn’t bode well for going deep into outings, either. Liberatore has failed to reach this projection in five of his seven starts thus far in 2026. <\/p>\n Add Matthew Liberatore to your PrizePicks Lineup now.<\/a><\/p>\n {{mlb_offer_banner=”\/style-system\/ui-components-playbook”}}<\/p>\n Padres P Michael King vs. Cardinals Projection: 5.5 StrikeoutsDespite some pretty favorable strikeout matchups, King has only gone over this projection three times. The Cardinals are 20th in MLB in K-rate at just 21.7% for the season.St. Louis also walks at an above-average 9.4% clip, which could spell some trouble for King (4.08 BB\/9, highest of his career).King has a 2.95 ERA but a 4.20 xFIP. Additionally, his .253 BABIP is the lowest mark of his MLB tenure. <\/p>\n Add Michael King to your PrizePicks Lineup now.<\/a><\/p>\n ><\/p>\n Make Cardinals vs. Padres Picks on PrizePicks<\/p>\n MLB has blessed us with another all-day baseball slate, and the nightcap is just one of many games for you to get your action on PrizePicks. <\/p>\n Don\u2019t wait until lock \u2014 make your Cardinals vs. Padres picks<\/a> on PrizePicks now and earn real money if you\u2019re right.<\/p>\n Pick players, predict More or Less on their stats, and cash in if you\u2019re right. With Team Picks<\/a>, you can make predictions on game winners, spreads, and over\/unders, now available in 35 states.<\/p>\n Stay locked in on Playbook for daily MLB predictions<\/a>, picks, and news every day all the way through the 2026 NBA Finals.<\/p>\n Team Picks and Culture Picks are event contracts offered by Performance Predictions II, LLC d\/b\/a PrizePicks Predict, a CFTC-registered FCM and NFA Member. All event contract customers must be U.S. residents and 18+. Some event contracts may not be available in every state. Event contract trading carries significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. No guarantee against loss is offered. Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results. Void where prohibited by law. Restrictions apply. For full terms of service see prizepicks.com\/predict-regulatory<\/a>. Team and Culture Pick Early Payouts subject to market liquidity. The content provided is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, or a recommendation to trade any commodity interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Diego Padres game is set for 10:00 p.m. ET…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-656361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}