Padres at Astros prediction: Odds, expert picks, starting pitchers, betting trends, and stats for April 18

Its Friday, April 18 and the Padres (15-4) are in Houston to take on the Astros (8-10).

Kyle Hart is slated to take the mound for San Diego against Ryan Gusto for Houston.

The white-hot Padres have won six of their last seven including a 4-2 win Wednesday night against the Cubs. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado each drove in two runs for San Diego. Houston lost two of three in St. Louis including a 4-1 loss Wednesday.

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 Padres at Astros

• Date: Friday, April 18, 2025
• Time: 8:10PM EST
• Site: Minute Maid Park
• City: Houston, TX
• Network/Streaming: SDPA, SCHN

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 Astros

The latest odds as of Friday:

• Moneyline: Padres (+115), Astros (-137)
• Spread:  Astros -1.5
• Total: 9.0 runs

Probable starting pitchers for Padres at Astros

• Pitching matchup for April 18, 2025: Kyle Hart vs. Ryan Gusto
  
  • Padres: Kyle Hart (2-0, 5.40 ERA)
    Last outing: 4/12 vs. Colorado - 6IP, 0ER, 1H, 0BB, 4Ks
  • Astros: Ryan Gusto (1-1, 3.00 ERA)
    Last outing: 4/12 vs. Angels - 4IP, 3ER, 4H, 1BB, 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 Padres at Astros

• The Padres have won 4 of their last 5 road games against teams with losing records
• It has been 7 games since the Padres last failed to cover the Run Line
• Former Astros 1B Yuli Gurriel is 2-21 (.095) in April
• Manny Machado has hit in 4 straight games (5-14)

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 Padres and the Astros

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 Friday's game between the Padres and the Astros:

• Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is staying away from a play on the Moneyline.
• Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the San Diego Padres at +1.5.
• Total: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play on the over on the Game Total of 9.0.

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)
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• Vaughn Dalzell (@VmoneySports)
• Brad Thomas (@MrBradThomas)