Caleb Wilfinger
The MLB season continues on Monday, and the 2025 campaign has already produced a lot of exciting action on the diamond. While there are plenty of ways to wager on all of the action this season, one of the quickest bets you can make is if a run will be scored in the first inning. There is still value to be had in this market, so it’s no wonder that these bets have become very popular over time. If you don’t like sweating out your wagers for 3 hours, this one will take only about 15 minutes.
The NRFI/YRFI market has been profitable for our MLB handicapping team this season, so let’s keep that momentum going! Here are today’s MLB YRFI/NRFI best bets, and don’t forget to check out our MLB picks for all of today’s games.
YRFI/NRFI best bet: Los Angeles Dodgers vs Cleveland Guardians – NRFI (-120)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -130.
Our best bet in the YRFI/NRFI market takes us to Cleveland for a matchup between the Dodgers and Guardians from Progressive Field. This is an interleague battle between a couple of playoff-caliber teams, one where both pitchers should start strong to open this series. With that in mind, I’m anticipating that the arms will have the early edge in this game — which is why I’m targeting the NRFI on Monday.
The Guardians are a team that has consistently relied on its pitching in recent seasons, and while that hasn’t been the case in 2025 thus far, I’m still confident in Gavin Williams getting Cleveland started off on the right foot in this one. The right-hander has mediocre numbers on paper, but his road splits are much worse than his stats at home, where he’s surrendered just 2 runs over his last 10 innings. The Dodgers lineup also doesn’t have much experience against Williams, which should aid the 25-year old in his early matchups against this elite unit.
On the other side, the Dodgers are going to send Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound, and this typically means good things are in store for Los Angeles. After all, Yamamoto has established himself as one of the best pitchers in the game and is coming off an outstanding outing against the Diamondbacks, where he tossed 7 shutout innings and allowed just 1 hit while striking out 9 in the process. Given that the Guardians have zero experience against the Dodgers ace, we’re set up pretty well for a scoreless opening frame on Monday. I’ll gladly drink a bit of juice and back the YRFI in this interleague matchup.
