San Diego Padres vs Chicago Cubs Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 04/04/25

The San Diego Padres have jumped out to a very fast start in 2025, earning a 7-0 start with sweeps over the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Guardians. San Diego now faces their first test on the road, traveling to Chicago to take on the Cubs in Wrigley for a 3-game set before traveling to Sacramento to face the Athletics. While their pitching staff has been elite so far, including 6 scoreless innings from Randy Vasquez in his season debut, I actually favor the Cubs in today’s game. Vasquez was fortunate to survive his 8 base runners while generating just 3 strikeouts against Atlanta. Last season he posted underwhelming numbers, and he projects to be a bottom-tier starter once again this season.

Shota Imanaga will make his third start of the season today, having faced both the Dodgers and Diamondbacks so far while allowing just 1 combined run across 11.0 innings of work. He makes his first true home start this season, a place where he dominated last year with 100 strikeouts and a 2.72 ERA across 96 innings at Wrigley Field. San Diego met Imanaga last season for the first time as the southpaw tossed 7 innings of 2-run ball in a home start. Imanaga is my preferred starting option in this game, and he should propel the Cubs to a win in this spit.

Padres vs Cubs prediction: Chicago ML (-162) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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