We have a full 15-game slate for Saturday, August 1, starting early with Cardinals vs Blue Jays at 3:07 PM ET (Rogers Centre), including Pirates vs Reds at 6:40 PM ET (Great American Ballpark), and closing with Red Sox vs Dodgers at 9:10 PM ET (Dodger Stadium).
Our staff has all the action for your betting today.
Read on for our 5 MLB Best Bets Today.
MLB Best Bets Today
The team logos in the table below represent each matchup 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 |
|---|---|---|
  | 3:07 PM | |
  | 4:10 PM | |
  | 6:40 PM | |
  | 7:15 PM | |
  | 9:10 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 Blue Jays Best Bet
By Tony Sartori
This season, St. Louis ranks in the bottom half of the league in hits per game, batting average, slugging percentage and OPS. Not that Toronto is any better.
Entering this matchup, the Blue Jays rank in the bottom four in runs scored per game, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS.
It also won't help Toronto's cause that not a single player in this lineup has faced Quinn Mathews prior to Saturday.
Read Sartori's full Cardinals-Jays preview here:
Pick: Under 8.5 (-115 or Better)
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Sean Paul's Twins vs Mariners Best Bet
By Sean Paul
I'm rolling with the Under.
The Under is 26-24-3 in Seattle home games, and it's known as a pretty extreme pitcher's park.
In a matchup featuring a monster like Logan Gilbert and a high-upside arm in Connor Prielipp, it should lead to a lot of trips back to the dugout and a low-scoring game.
Read Paul's full Twins-Mariners preview here:
Pick: Under 7.5 (-110 or Better)
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Matt Trollo's Pirates vs Reds Best Bet
By Matt Trollo
As everyone expected, a Friday night Skenes/Greene matchup turned into a shootout. Maybe a pair of struggling pitchers will lead to a lower-scoring game.
Braxton Ashcraft has allowed 23 runs (22 earned) over his last 25 2/3 innings, but there are a couple of caveats.
He’s done this with a 17.4 K-BB% that’s not too far below his 20.7% season rate (though just 8.7% against the Yankees and Cubs last two times out) and while he’s allowed eight barrels, six of them came in just two starts.
He’s also allowed a 48.1 HardHit%, while LHBs have homered seven times with a .422 wOBA against him during this stretch, but stop and think about the Cincinnati offense and try to use more than a few fingers in counting their dangerous LHBs.
There’s J.J. Bleday’s 121 wRC+ and .244 ISO against RHP this year and Elly De La Cruz’s 107, .176 plus Nathaniel Lowe’s 130, .239.
That’s not just the dangerous portion of their left-handed contingent; it’s the absolute entirety of it via BARTOLO’s projected lineup. The remaining six batters are right-handed, and while they have a healthy .344 wOBA against Ashcraft during this stretch, it comes with eight strikeouts and no walks in just 35 RHBs faced.
On the season, RHBs have just a .263 wOBA and .247 xwOBA against him.
You may not consider Andrew Abbott’s 3.67 ERA over the last month struggling, but the 4.81 SIERA and 4.52 xFIP would differ. Even his .319 xwOBA allowed is nothing to write home about.
Abbott has benefited in parts from a .268 BABIP and 78.1 LOB%, which aren’t outrageous, but both are a bit suspect and likely to regress. Abbott does have a career 80.3 LOB% over 530 innings, but continuing at this pace would make him the best runner stranded of all time.
In fact, he has an xFIP, FIP, and xERA all measuring exactly 4.77 this year without a single estimator below four and a half, so how in the world is he keeping his ERA below four?
It’s certainly not because of Saturday’s projected defense, combining for -17 FRV, 14 worse than their projected counterparts.
I have Ashcraft slightly more than a full run ahead of Abbott, pushing his weighted estimators a bit above three and a half due to his last month of struggles, despite none of his non-pitch modeling indicators reaching that mark for the year.
The Pirates haven’t been as strong against RHP as they have against LHP this year. The projected lineup averages a 98 wRC+ and .164 ISO against southpaws that more or less matches Cincinnati’s numbers against RHP (95, .169). They do have a 28-point superior wRC+ than the projected Reds over the past 30 days, though.
Starting pitching, offense, and defense are all Pittsburgh edges here. The Pirates also have bullpen estimators (FIP, xFIP & SIERA) that average exactly half a run better than Cincinnati over the last 30 days through Thursday. BARTOLO ranks the Pittsburgh relievers six spots ahead of the Reds.
Check out all of Trollo's best bets for today in Saturday's edition of The Leadoff:
Pick: Pirates ML (-155 or Better)
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Ryan Minion's Nationals vs Braves Best Bet
By Ryan Minion
I feel confident backing the Braves to prevail given a massive perceived edge on the mound for Weiss’ club with the Nats’ Mikolas struggling mightily throughout his 2026 campaign thus far.
In 24 appearances on the mound in 2026, Lopez has been quite reliable for Atlanta both as a starter and out of the bullpen in relief.
The Braves’ 32-year-old has recorded a 3.64 ERA on the season, having surrendered 29 earned runs (ER) across nearly 72 frames on the mound this season.
Though Lopez has not dazzled statistically, Atlanta’s right-hander has been very consistent on the bump and will undoubtedly play a big role in the Braves’ quest for a top seed in the National League with the postseason just a couple of months away.
While the Braves’ righty has been very steady in 2026, his Saturday counterpart could not be further from Lopez’s consistent form on the mound.
In 22 appearances on the mound this season, Mikolas has recorded an atrocious 5.65 ERA, with the 37-year-old having allowed a whopping 64 ER throughout his 102 frames in 2026.
That said, the concerning form of the Nats’ veteran is far from surprising, with Miles having finished a season with an ERA sub-4.20 just once in his last seven years pitching in the Major Leagues.
In addition to Mikolas’ inefficiency on the bump, Washington’s righty is set to take the mound on the road versus a divisional rival boasting arguably the most complete lineup in all of baseball with some impressive versatility from one to nine.
Prior to the 2026 season, I placed a futures wager on the Braves to win the World Series this season, so it is not shocking that I love Atlanta in this spot on Saturday evening with sizable edges both at the plate and on the bump.
I will be backing the Braves on the moneyline.
Read Minion's full Nationals-Braves preview here:
Pick: Braves ML (-200 or Better)
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Sean Zerillo's Red Sox vs Dodgers Best Bet
By Sean Zerillo
I project some value on the Under in this matchup.
If you'd like to dive deeper into why I project this score this way, I recommend checking out BARTOLO, my new PRO baseball betting tool providing PRO subscribers with live access to all the data I use to project MLB games each day.
One of the things you get with BARTOLO is my precise projection for each MLB game — as you can see here, I project just 7.16 runs for this matchup:
A big reason for that low projection is the stud starting pitching matchup between Payton Tolle and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, two of my top-35 MLB starting pitchers:
Get access to all this and more with a PRO subscription today.
Pick: Under 8 (-115 or Better)
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