Caleb Wilfinger
The second half of the 2025 MLB season continues rolling along today, and Sunday features a full slate of action for us to enjoy. I’m 58-37 on my MLB best bets this year and the Pickswise MLB handicapping team as a whole is 113-82-7 in this article series this season! Let’s keep it going as we get into today’s top predictions on Sunday, August 3.
You can also find out our MLB picks for EVERY GAME today.
MLB best bet: Los Angeles Dodgers -1.5 over Tampa Bay Rays (-115)
Odds available at Caesars Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -125.
For my first MLB best bet for today, we’ll focus on an interleague matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays. This has been a series defined by pitching in one way or another to this point, and I’m projecting the Dodgers bounce back following a poor offensive showing on Saturday, especially with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. Yamamoto has established himself as a dominant ace and has been largely excellent this season. Furthermore, Yamamoto has surrendered just 4 runs over his last 19 innings pitched, including a pair of 7-inning outings where he surrendered a combined 1 run. With that in mind, it’s fair to suggest that we’ll get another strong effort from the Dodgers’ top starter against a mediocre Tampa Bay offense in this one.
As for the hosts, the Rays are opting to go with Joe Boyle (2.54 xERA, 1.79 xBA, 33% whiff rate). He is coming off his worst outing of the season against the Yankees, in which he lasted only 3.1 innings and allowed a whopping 6 runs in the loss. I can certainly see more issues piling up against a Dodgers lineup that has plenty of star power from top to bottom, even if the consistency hasn’t always been there this season. Let’s back Los Angeles to win by multiple runs.
MLB best bet: Texas Rangers F5 -0.5 over Seattle Mariners (-110)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -120.
Our second MLB best bet today takes us to Seattle, where I’ll be focusing on yet another game in this series between the Rangers and Mariners. Seattle took 2 of the first 3 games of this series, with Friday’s victory coming in walk-off fashion, but I’m suspecting Texas will do enough to even things up here. It all starts with Jacob deGrom on the mound, and he looks like his old dominant self again this season (2.55 ERA, 0.92 WHIP). He has also been dominant lately, allowing just 20 runs over his last 11 outings, with most of those outings lasting at least 6 innings.
On the other side, the Mariners are countering with Logan Evans — a pitcher with some extremely concerning expected metrics (5.50 xERA, .295 expected batting average, bottom 6 percentile hard-hit rate). These suggest that major regression is due for the Seattle starter, who should have his hands full against a Texas lineup that is clicking on all cylinders in recent weeks. Let’s ditch the bullpens and back Texas to lead after the first 5 innings.
