Cardinals at Pirates Prediction: Odds, expert picks, starting pitchers, betting trends and stats for April 8

Its a Paul Skenes' Tuesday! The Pirates (3-7) to to get things back on track as their ace takes the mound against the St. Louis Cardinals (4-5).

Sonny Gray is slated to take the mound for St. Louis against Paul Skenes for Pittsburgh

Monday saw the Pirates double up the Cardinals, 8-4. Andrew McCutchen, Joey Bart, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa each drove in a pair of runs for Pittsburgh and Carmen Mlodzinski gave up just a single run over five innings to earn his first win of the season.

Lets 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 tipoff, 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 Pirates

• Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2025
• Time: 6:40PM EST
• Site: PNC Park
• City: Pittsburgh, PA
• Network/Streaming: FDS, SNP360

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 Cardinals at the Pirates

The latest odds as of Monday:

• Moneyline: Cardinals (+119), Pirates (-139)
• Spread:  Pirates -1.5
• Total: 6.0 runs

Probable starting pitchers for Cardinals at Pirates

• Pitching matchup for April 8, 2025: Sonny Gray vs. Paul Skenes
  
  • Cardinals: Sonny Gray (1-0, 5.73 ERA)
    Last outing: 4/2 vs. Angels - 6IP, 5ER, 5H, 0BB, 9Ks
  • Pirates: Paul Skenes (1-0, 1.46 ERA)
    Last outing: 4/2 at Tampa - 7IP, 0ER, 3H, 0BB, 6Ks

Rotoworld still has you covered with all the latest MLB player news for all 30 teams. Check out the feed page right here on NBC Sports for headlines, injuries and transactions where you can filter by league, team, positions and news type!

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

• Cardinals' pitching ranks as the worst in the National League and it shows in Game Totals which are 8-1-1 to the OVER through 10 games
• Pittsburgh's last 4 games have gone OVER the Game Total
• Pittsburgh is 4-7 on the Run Line 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 Tuesday’s game between the Cardinals and the Pirates

Rotoworld 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 Tuesday's game between the Cardinals and the Pirates:

• Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is staying away from a play on the Moneyline.
• Spread: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play ATS on the Pirates -1.5.
• Total: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play on the Game Total OVER 6.0.

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

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)
• Brad Thomas (@MrBradThomas)