Caleb Wilfinger
The 2nd half of the 2025 MLB season continues rolling along today, and Monday features a compelling slate of action for us to enjoy. I’m 62-41 on my MLB best bets this year and the Pickswise MLB handicapping team as a whole is currently on a 9-4-1 run! Let’s keep it going as we get into today’s top predictions on Monday, August 11. You can also find out our MLB picks for EVERY GAME today.
MLB best bet: Boston Red Sox F5 -0.5 over Houston Astros (+100)
Odds available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -115.
For my first MLB best bet for today, we’ll focus on a familiar American League matchup between the Red Sox and Astros. Houston just rolled through the floundering Yankees on Sunday, but the Red Sox are playing much better baseball than New York at this point. It doesn’t help matters for the visitors that Garrett Crochet has performed like a true, dominant ace for the Red Sox, having allowed just 5 runs over his last 28 innings pitched. On the other side, Houston is countering with Cristian Javier (4.56 xERA), a pitcher whose expected metrics do suggest that he’s due for some fairly significant regression. Against a Red Sox lineup that is a top 10 unit in the sport, Javier could certainly surrender a couple of early runs, which might be all we need to cash this wager.
MLB best bet: Los Angeles Dodgers F5 -0.5 over Los Angeles Angels (-120)
Odds available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -135.
Our second MLB best bet today takes us to Los Angeles, where the Dodgers are in a good spot to bounce back from Sunday’s disappointing defeat by putting it on the Angels early and often. Any time that Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the ball, I’m going to immediately gravitate toward backing the Dodgers, as the Japanese ace is coming off a pair of excellent outings against the Rays and Reds, where he surrendered just 9 hits and 1 total run over his 13 innings pitched. Given that Yamamoto has enjoyed success against the American League in limited action in interleague play, it’s hard not to bank on the Dodgers best pitcher to turn in another quality start on Monday.
As for the hosts, the Angels are turning to Jose Soriano (4.01 ERA), who just allowed 7 earned runs against the Rays in his last outing. Soriano also has had trouble limiting hard contact from opposing hitters this season, ranking inside the bottom 10 percent of all qualified starters in hard-hit rate. The Dodgers lineup is clearly the strongest unit in this game, and Los Angeles has also gotten back on track at the dish since the return of Max Muncy to the lineup last week. With that in mind, I’ll back the Dodgers to scratch across a couple of early runs and lead after 5 innings in this one.
