Happy Friday everyone, hope you all had a great week and are ready for the weekend and I know its a different sport entirely but good luck with your fantasy football drafts if you have them too, I know that I do with my college buddies. Back to the MLB now though where yesterday was a decent day as I just keep my head above water! Feeling great about today's slate to help build on the last couple winning days too and in this article you will find a 1st 5 Innings total, a plus money player prop, Money Line and an overall game total! Good luck to everyone and have a great weekend, see everyone back here tomorrow for some more MLB Best Bets!

  • Thursday's Record: 2-1
  • Season Record: 84-74-3
  • Bankroll: +0.96 units
 

MLB Best Bets for August 25

New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays

It's been a rough stretch for both the Yankees and Rays lately as New York slips further away from playoff contention and Tampa Bay is dealing with the fallout of the Wander Franco situation. Luckily for both teams though they are rolling out their aces and that makes tonight's game a must watch and a must wager for me. Gerrit Cole will go for the Yankees with is 3.03 ERA and 1.07 WHIP and although he has gotten beat up the last few starts I think Cole delivers a nice performance tonight. On the other end of the mound is Zach Eflin for the Rays with his equally impressive numbers of a 3.58 ERA and 1.03 WHIP. The Yankees offense has also had issues scoring of late with just 24 runs over their last 8 games! Because of these two going head to head I must take an under through the 1st 5 Innings given the stats and trends, its not the sexy pick but hopefully the right one. 

Pick: Yankees & Rays 1st 5 Innings Under 3.5 Runs (-115 on FanDuel)

Texas Rangers at Minnesota Twins 

I am going back to the well tonight in this series as the Twins are not good but they made me look silly last night so this is a full spite pick. The Rangers aren't as big of underdogs as yesterday which stinks but there is still great value betting one of the best baseball teams in the league this season. They have a projected run total according to the model of 4.34 and the Twins have a projected run total of 4.3, that is razor thin and creates value for the Rangers considering its a toss up on the stats. The pitching matchup does make things a little dicey too with Sonny Gray pitching for the Twins but he has been human since early July allowing an ERA of around 3.6 in those 9 starts. The Texas bats can be damaging to righties and lefties alike too so Gray will have his work cut out for him. I should mention that Dane Dunning will pitch for the Rangers as well and he is no slouch with a 3.19 ERA and 101 strikeouts over 132.2 innings pitched this season. Those numbers will be inflated tonight as well and guess what I'm going to bet yet another strikeout prop against the Twins because no one swings and misses more than they do! Give me the Rangers and Dunning to go over 5.5 strikeouts at plus money!

Pick: Texas Rangers Money Line (+100 on Caesars)

Pick: Dane Dunning Over 5.5 Strikeouts (+125 on DraftKings)

Kansas City Royals at Seattle Mariners

Last pick here on the docket for the best bets and I am keeping it simple and betting the over in this game. The Royals may be terrible but they are scoring runs in the month of August with 112 runs over 23 which for you math people out there works out to 4.87 runs per game which is a significant rise from their season average of 4.01. The books still haven't caught up in my opinion either as the total sits at just 8 runs tonight and with Brady Singer starting for the Royals this game could explode at anytime. This is all without mentioning the Mariners who are red hot winning 8 of the last 9 games on the back of their offense that averaged 7.22 runs per game during that span. The Royals and Mariners also just played a week or so ago and that series featured 39 total runs and every game hit the over, let's run that back!

Pick: Royals & Mariners Over 8 Runs (-110 on BetMGM)

**all bets are one unit unless specifically mentioned.