Caleb Wilfinger
The second half of the 2025 MLB season continues rolling along, and Thursday features a full slate of action for us to enjoy. I’m 88-60-1 on my MLB best bets this year and the Pickswise MLB handicapping team as a whole is currently on a 35-18 run! Let’s keep it going as we get into today’s top MLB predictions on Thursday, September 18.
You can also find out our MLB picks for EVERY GAME today.
MLB best bet: LA Dodgers F5 -0.5 over San Francisco Giants (+100)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -110.
For my first MLB best bet today, we’ll focus on this NL West matchup between the Dodgers and Giants. This has long been one of the best rivalries in the sport and there’s plenty on the line for both teams in Thursday’s contest. The Dodgers lineup has been extremely inconsistent over the last month, but Los Angeles has seemed to find a spark of late, as its scored 5+ runs in 7 of the last 8 games. The Dodgers have also been terrific on the mound, and that trend should continue with Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2.66 ERA) toeing the rubber, as the Los Angeles ace has surrendered just 3 runs over his last 22.2 innings pitched. Given his familiarity with this Giants lineup and his proven track record at home, Yamamoto should roll through San Francisco on Thursday.
As for the home side, San Francisco is countering with Logan Webb, who has been up-and-down of late. Webb just struggled mightily in his last outing against the Dodgers a week ago, allowing 6 runs on 10 hits in just 4 innings. To make matters worse, that start came at home, where Webb has generally been much stronger this season. Look for Los Angeles lineup to scratch across a few more early runs against Webb as his struggles should continue away from home. I’ll avoid backing the leaky Dodgers bullpen and stick with putting my faith in one of the best pitchers in baseball to start strong at home in this divisional matchup.
MLB best bet: NY Yankees -1.5 over Baltimore Orioles (-115)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -125.
For my second MLB best bet on Friday, I’ll be targeting the Yankees on the run line against the Orioles. This game features a significant pitching mismatch, as we’ll see Max Fried (3.03 ERA) take the mound for New York against Cade Povich (5.05 ERA, 5.71 xERA) for the Orioles. Fried is in the midst of a rock solid run of form, as he’s surrendered just 8 runs over his last 5 outings and 32.1 innings pitched. I see no reason for that not to continue against an Orioles lineup that is 22nd in on-base percentage and 19th in OPS on the year. As for Povich, he has not fared well against New York in his young career, and given the fact that his expected metrics are very poor (bottom 10% in barrel rate & hard-hit rate), I wouldn’t predict that we’ll see a turnaround on Thursday. New York should roll in this one.
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