Caleb Wilfinger
The 2025 MLB postseason continues on Wednesday with all 4 series-opening games in the Wild Card round. It’s Tigers vs Guardians, Padres vs Cubs, Red Sox vs Yankees and Reds vs Dodgers. The Pickswise team is on a 47-31 run in this MLB best bets series. Let’s build on that momentum and hopefully deliver some more winners today! Make sure you also check out our MLB picks for every Wild Card game on Wednesday, October 1 and throughout the entire MLB postseason.
MLB best bet: Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees Under 7.5 (-120)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -125.
Since the start of the new postseason format back in 2022, MLB Wild Card round games have traditionally been lower-scoring affairs. In fact, the under is 18-5-2 in the Wild Card round and that historical trend continued on Tuesday, as 3 of the 4 games played went well under the total. Pitching tends to dominate the proceedings in these games, and we should see another strong duel on the mound in the 2nd game of this AL East showdown in the Bronx on Wednesday.
For starters, Brayan Bello is a pitcher who is in the midst of a solid campaign, and he’s also seen success against this Yankees lineup, having tossed 7 scoreless innings against New York both in June and August earlier this season. He’ll be opposed by Carlos Rodon, a pitcher who is in very good form for New York, having registered a quality start in 8 of his last 9 outings. Given that this is an elimination game for New York, I’d expect Rodon to be strong and given a short leash if any trouble arises.
Both teams should go to their respective bullpens early and look to play the matchups down the stretch in order to neutralize the potency of some of the bats in these lineups. With that in mind, I’m projecting another slow day at the plate for both sides.
Read our full Red Sox vs Yankees prediction after our experts went a perfect 4-0 yesterday
MLB best bet: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD) over 17.5 outs recorded (-110)
Odds available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -120.
Game 1 of this series between the Reds and Dodgers went about as I expected. After all, Los Angeles’ offense was excellent when it mattered most, and Blake Snell delivered a rock-solid performance over 7 innings of work. However, the least surprising data point from that game came from the Dodger bullpen, as Los Angeles’ relievers allowed 3 runs and struggled mightily to find the strikeout in the 8th and 9th innings, turning a massive blowout victory into somewhat of a concerning omen for the postseason to come. With that performance fresh in the mind of Dave Roberts, I’d expect we see a pretty long leash for Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 on Wednesday, as the Dodgers ace will look to shut the door on this series and send his team to the NLDS.
While most managers are quicker to go to their bullpens in October, Roberts has no reason to, given the fact that his high-leverage arms have been largely terrible for months now. It was a massive struggle for the bullpen down the stretch to generate any sort of consistency, and Yamamoto himself was a victim of this failure on multiple occasions. Fortunately for the Dodgers, the Japanese star has been brilliant this season, particularly over the last 6 weeks. In fact, Yamamoto has reached 6 innings pitched in all but 1 of his last 7 outings dating back to August 18. Given that the right-hander tossed 7 scoreless innings against the Reds back on July 28, he should feel very comfortable at home against a lineup that only registered 4 hits against Snell in Game 1.
After we cashed a +891 winner yesterday, check out our MLB parlay picks for today’s Wild Card action
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