MLB picks today: Best bets, predictions, odds, parlays for Thursday, August 4

Thirteen MLB games are scheduled to be played on Thursday, Aug. 4 with plenty of money-making opportunities on the board including a doubleheader with the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals. The slate will get start early in the afternoon with an eight-game nightcap, and the top matchup to watch is the Atlanta Braves vs. New York Mets as the two best teams in the National League East begin a five-game series.

Here we're going to be tracking all the best MLB picks based on the odds and lines on DraftKings Sportsbook for Thursday's baseball action.

MLB picks for Thursday, August 4

The Toronto Blue Jays are in a great position to pick up a victory in the first matchup of four-game series against the Minnesota Twins, and these odds make the wager worth it. Toronto will start Alek Manoah, who has a 2.43 ERA through 20 starts this season, and the Blue Jays have the best batting average (.264) in the league heading into Thursday night.

The San Francisco Giants have great odds to cover this run line in a 1.5-run head start against the Los Angeles Dodgers in this spot. They will start Jakob Junis, who has a 2.78 ERA and allowed two runs over five innings of work against the Dodgers earlier this season. He should put the Giants in a decent position to pick up a victory, but they can certainly keep the deficit within two runs.

This is the largest run total of the night when considering the betting odds, but the under will be the play on Thursday night. The Boston Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta went through a rough July, allowing at least four runs in four of five starts, but the Kansas City Royals scored fewer than three runs in three consecutive matchups. Kansas City pitcher Kris Bubic's season-long numbers are pretty bad with a 5.45 ERA but allowed three or fewer runs in all six starts in July.

The Oakland Athletics starter is not a high-strikeout thrower with a 7.3 K/9 through 20 starts this season, but Blackburn should reach 5 strikeouts on Thursday. He will face a Los Angeles Angels lineup that struck out 9.6 times per game, which is the most in the MLB. The Angels are one of the worst offenses in baseball with the 27th-ranked on-base percentage (.300), so Blackburn should be able to get fairly deep into this start.

  
Read Full Article >