The opening week of the 2026 Major League Baseball season continues with another loaded slate of games on Sunday. The 12-game card includes a couple of showdowns, including Sunday Night Baseball between the Cleveland Guardians and Seattle Mariners. The action gets underway at 1:35 pm ET between the Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves.
Here are my best bets for Sunday’s slate, and also make sure to check out our MLB picks for predictions throughout the 2026 campaign!
Minnesota Twins vs Baltimore Orioles Under 9 (-115)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -125.
While the weather in Baltimore has been pretty agreeable to runs over the first couple of days of the season, there hasn’t been much in the way of hitting to this point. Don’t expect that to change in the series finale, and this number is a bit inflated given the profile of both starting pitchers. Bailey Ober gets the ball for the Twins, and his expected numbers were noticeably better than his basic counting stats a year ago. Ober should be able to get plenty of whiffs from the Baltimore lineup, and the same should be true of new Orioles starter Shane Baz (3.88 xERA, top 25% ground-ball rate in 2025). Add in the fact that the temperatures are expected to be cooler at Camden Yards, and we have the game script for an under.
Philadelphia Phillies F5 innings -0.5 over Texas Rangers (-105)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -115.
The Phillies battled all the way back from a 3-0 deficit, just to lose in extra innings on Saturday. This time out, Philadelphia should get off to a fast start and hold an early lead after 5 innings. The Phillies lineup profiles well against Rangers starter MacKenzie Gore, who ranked inside the bottom 20 percentile in barrel rate and hard-hit rate a season ago. On the other side, Philadelphia will send Jesús Luzardo to the mound, who was performing at an extremely high level in 2025. While it remains to be seen if he can replicate that performance this season, Luzardo is a rock solid pitcher across the board and he should start off his season on a high note at home.
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