Ricky Dimon
The week in Major League Baseball continues with an 8-game schedule on Thursday. It’s a modest slate that includes Tigers vs Orioles, Yankees vs Royals and Cardinals vs Brewers. The Pickswise team has been in fine form so far this season. I’m 35-25-2 record so far in this best bets piece while going 4-for-8 on Same Game Parlays at +481, +632, +439 and +600 odds and 5-1 on YRFI/NRFI picks. Pickswise’s MLB handicapping team on the whole is 60-42-5 on their best bets. Let’s keep it going as we get into my MLB best bets of the day! Also, don’t forget to check out our MLB picks for Thursday’s slate.
MLB best bet: San Francisco Giants -1.5 over Colorado Rockies (-149)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing
Despite sweeping Miami earlier this month, Colorado is still well on its way to being one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball history. The Rockies have lost 5 in a row since (including the first 2 of this series against the Giants), falling to 12-55 overall. Things are unlikely to get any better with Antonio Senzatela toeing the rubber. You can’t even make up his statistics; the right-hander is 1-10 with a 6.68 ERA and 1.97 WHIP with only 33 strikeouts in addition to 21 walks 62.0 innings.
Hayden Birdsong is starting for San Francisco, which amounts to a bullpen game. And that’s certainly not a bad thing for the Giants, who lead the entire league in ‘pen ERA (2.36). As for Birdsong, he could conceivably work as many as 5.0 innings if things go particularly well. The right-hander is 3-1 with a 2.55 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 42.1 innings of work. Even with considerable juice at -149, San Francisco still has good value to cover the run line as our MLB best bet.
Read our full Giants vs Rockies prediction
MLB best bet: Detroit Tigers vs Baltimore Orioles Under 8 (-104)
Odds available at Bet365 Sportsbook at time of publishing
Tarik Skubal is taking the mound for Detroit on Thursday. When that’s the case, you almost always have to start thinking long and hard about the under. This matchup with Baltimore is no exception. The Orioles rolled 10-1 on Wednesday, but this a club that is 12 games under .500 and has scored just 259 total runs this season. There is no reason to think they will do anything against Skubal. The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner is 6-2 with a 2.16 ERA, 0.82 WHIP and an outrageous 105-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 83.1 innings. Skubal faced the O’s on April 27 and fired 6.0 innings of shutout baseball with 11 Ks and zero walks during a 7-0 victory.
The Orioles are countering with Dean Kremer, who has been outstanding at home in 2025. Kremer is 3-1 with a 2.25 ERA in front of his own fans compared to 2-5 with a 6.33 ERA on the road. The Tigers have scored 3 runs or fewer in their 7 of their last 11 contests. This has all the makings of a low-scoring affair – potentially very low scoring.
Find out JutPicks’ best MLB player prop bets for today’s action
