San Diego Padres vs. St. Louis Cardinals
July 24, 2025 7:45 pm EDT
Major League Baseball presents FanDuel baseball fans with a National League matchup featuring the San Diego Padres and the St. Louis Cardinals. Let’s take a look at this MLB game from a DFS perspective.
Before we dive into the San Diego Padres vs. St. Louis Cardinals game let’s review the rules for the FanDuel single game showdown contest.
FanDuel Single Game Contest Rules
Here are the FanDuel single game contest rules. You have $60,000 to utilize on five players from either team. However, one of those players will be designated as your team MVP. The MVP accumulates 1.5x times the standard FanDuel fantasy points value. Additionally, the MVP is 1.5 times the standard cost of the flex position.
The remaining five players in your lineup will be flex plays. The five flex positions will receive the standard FanDuel points value. Having stated that, it is highly important for you to identify the correct player for your MVP position if you hope to win a large field GPP (guaranteed prize pool) FanDuel single game contest.
If you have additional questions regarding the rules for the single game contest, I highly recommend that you check out the FanDuel website for more details.
*It should be noted that FanDuel does not utilize the pitcher position in single game MLB contests. Having stated that, only batters are available for single game MLB lineups on the FanDuel platform.
Here are my FanDuel picks for today’s Padres vs. Cardinals matchup.
FanDuel MLB DFS Picks
MVP-Manny Machado, Third Baseman, San Diego Padres $13,200
On Thursday night, Major League Baseball presents the first game of a four-game National League series featuring the San Diego Padres and the St. Louis Cardinals.
How are these two teams playing entering today’s MLB game? The San Diego Padres arrive at the first game of this four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals playing below average baseball. The Padres have won lost three of the team’s last five games played in the 2025 MLB regular season, including a 4-3 loss to the Miami Marlins two days ago.
Similar to the San Diego Padres, the St. Louis Cardinals are currently playing subpar baseball entering this evening’s game. The Cardinals have lost five of the team’s last six games played in the 2025 MLB regular season, including a 7-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks last week.
Now that we have identified how both of these teams are currently playing let’s shift our attention to today’s contest. Third Baseman Manny Machado has been an essential part of the San Diego Padres starting lineup this season. With that said, how has the veteran third baseman performed from a statistical perspective? Let’s examine Machado’s relevant game data from the 2025 MLB regular season to answer that question.
In the 102 games that San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado has played in the 2025 MLB regular season, Machado has compiled a robust .285 batting average, 18 home runs, 39 walks, 11 stolen bases, 61 RBIs (runs batted in), 60 runs scored and an .830 OPS (On-base Plus Slugging).
More recently, in the San Diego Padres 5-3 win over the Atlanta Braves earlier this season, San Diego third baseman Manny Machado certainly played at a high level. In the Padres win over the Braves, Machado amassed two hits (one home run), one double, two runs scored and one RBI. It should also be noted that in the Padres defeat of Atlanta, Machado compiled 27.9 FanDuel points.
In my opinion, Manny Machado is the most likely player to accumulate the most FanDuel points in this MLB game. For that specific reason, I am rolling with San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado at the MVP position for this one game MLB DFS slate.
Flex plays I like in this game (FanDuel price noted): Fernando Tatis Jr., Outfielder (San Diego Padres) $13,800: William Contreras, Catcher (St. Louis Cardinals) $12,800: Masyn Winn, Shortstop (St. Louis Cardinals) $10,200.
