It's Sunday, and we have an exciting 15-game slate of Major League Baseball ahead of us.
Our staff of baseball bettors has expert picks from two of the first three games, Blue Jays vs. Yankees (1:35 PM ET at Yankee Stadium) and Cardinals vs. Phillies (1:35 PM ET at Citizens Bank Park), through Sunday Night Baseball with Braves vs. Brewers at 7:10 PM ET (Journey Bank Ballpark).
Read on for our 5 MLB Best Bets Today.
MLB Best Bets Today
The team logos in the table below represent each of the matchups that our MLB betting staff is targeting from today's slate of games. Click on the team logos for any of the matchups below to navigate to a specific bet discussed in this article.
| Game | Time (ET) | Pick |
|---|---|---|
  | 1:35 PM | |
  | 1:35 PM | |
  | 3:10 PM | |
  | 3:15 PM | |
  | 7:10 PM | |
Specific betting recommendations come from the sportsbook offering preferred odds as of writing. Always shop for the best price using our MLB Odds page, which automatically surfaces the best lines for every game. | ||
Tony Sartori's Cardinals vs Phillies Best Bet
By Tony Sartori
In four career starts against the Cardinals, Cristopher Sanchez is 2-0 with a 1.85 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. The clear pitching advantage goes to Philadelphia, which leaves only the hitting matchup to consider.
This season, the Phillies rank ahead of St. Louis in runs scored per game, batting average, slugging percentage, and OPS.
With advantages both at the plate and on the mound, plus home-field advantage, Philadelphia should take care of business Sunday.
Pick: Phillies -1.5 (-102)
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Sean Zerillo's Blue Jays vs Yankees Best Bet
By Sean Zerillo
Our model shows solid value on the total for this Blue Jays vs. Yankees matchup, with a 6.5% edge on the over.
BARTOLO projects the Blue Jays for 3.98 runs and the Yankees for 4.31 this afternoon, which would bring the total over the line.
If you want to dive deeper into this matchup, it'd be wise to check out BARTOLO, my new PRO baseball tool that gives you access to all the input data he uses to project games every day.
Pick: Over 8 (-102)
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Ryan Minion's Guardians vs Rockies Best Bet
By Ryan Minion
Foster Griffin will make his fourth start for Cleveland, while Tomoyuki Sugano will start for Colorado.
Griffin has been great this season, with a 3.18 ERA and 1.11 WHIP across 25 outings. Meanwhile, Sugano has not been so great, running a 4.70 ERA across 119 frames.
The Guardians should win this game decisively behind another stellar outing from Griffin, and I expect Jose Ramirez to be a big part of that plan.
Ramirez has already hit a home run off Sugano this season. Surely he can do it again at mile-high altitude.
Pick: Guardians -1.5 (-110), Jose Ramirez Over 1.5 HRR (-235) / 1+ HR (+390)
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Sean Paul's Giants vs Red Sox Best Bet
By Sean Paul
The Red Sox enter as significant favorites in this series finale, sitting as -231 ML favorites. If you think Boston is winning, laying the juice on -231 probably isn't worth the squeeze as anything more than a parlay piece.
So, I'm rolling with Boston -1.5 at -105. Nine of the Giants' last 10 losses were by multiple runs. Baseball is a weird game and huge underdogs win often, but I can't justify a play on the Giants here.
We got a glimpse of how terrible their bullpen is on Saturday. They gave up three runs in the ninth to blow the game, and they'll likely have to cover six or seven innings if Wilkinson has another short outing.
That makes Boston -1.5 an obvious play to me.
Pick: Red Sox -1.5 (+100)
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Frank Ammirante's Braves vs Brewers Best Bet
I'm taking the Braves to avoid the sweep and beat the Brewers on Sunday Night Baseball.
This is a bet on Mahle, who has a 2.80 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP with a 25.7% strikeout rate and a 5.9% walk rate in 35 1/3 innings in his last six starts.
I'm also fading Drohan here. The Brewers used him out of relief on August 18th, when he went two innings. Prior to that, he gave up three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings against the Dodgers and six earned runs in five innings vs. the Twins.
Not only might we see a disruption in routine after a relief appearance in his last outing, but Drohan also had a tough time in his two previous starts.
The Braves have the edge on the mound, so look for them to avoid the sweep here.
Pick: Braves ML (+114)
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