Three of Wednesday's 15 Major League Baseball games are played in the afternoon window, giving bettors a chance to cash in early. Read on for our top MLB prop picks and best bets for Wednesday based on the best MLB odds.
The only two MLB teams with active winning streaks longer than three games reside in the AL West, as the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners have won eight and six consecutive games, respectively.
The Mariners are now 14-4 in their last 18 and sit two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the last AL wild-card spot. What will the standings look like 24 hours from now?
Here are our top MLB prop picks and best bets for Wednesday (odds via our best MLB betting sites; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).
Wednesday's MLB schedule and odds
- Miami Marlins (+105) vs. Cincinnati Reds (-125)
- Colorado Rockies (+190) vs. Milwaukee Brewers (-230)
- Texas Rangers (-298) vs. Oakland Athletics (+240)
- St. Louis Cardinals (+130) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (-155)
- Minnesota Twins (-155) vs. Detroit Tigers (+130)
- Washington Nationals (+150) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (-180)
- Houston Astros (-102) vs. Baltimore Orioles (-118)
- Atlanta Braves (-298) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (+240)
- Kansas City Royals (+185) vs. Boston Red Sox (-225)
- Chicago Cubs (-115) vs. New York Mets (-105)
- Toronto Blue Jays (-148) vs. Cleveland Guardians (+124)
- New York Yankees (OFF) vs. Chicago White Sox
- San Francisco Giants (OFF) vs. Los Angeles Angels
- Los Angeles Dodgers (-130) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (+110)
- San Diego Padres (OFF) vs. Seattle Mariners
Wednesday's MLB best bets
- Player prop: Kevin Gausman Under 2.5 earned runs (-140 via bet365) vs. Guardians ????
- Player prop: Matt Olson to hit a home run (+260 via FanDuel) vs. Pirates ???
- Player prop: Yu Darvish to record a win (OFF) vs. Mariners ???
- Moneyline: Dodgers (-125 via WynnBet) vs. Diamondbacks ????
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Wednesday's MLB prop picks
Blue Jays righty Kevin Gausman is third on the AL Cy Young leaderboard at most sportsbooks and has an excellent opportunity to add to his resume Wednesday. The Cleveland Guardians are already without the injured Josh Naylor, who leads the team in average (.306) and RBIs (79). They could also be without Jose Ramirez if MLB upholds its three-game suspension it issued Monday (Ramirez is appealing).
Gausman leads the American League in strikeouts (177), K/9 (12.1), and FIP (2.79), one year after his 2.38 FIP was the major's best. He also leads the AL in pitching WAR and is one of six pitchers since 2022 (min. 195 IP) with a K/9 rate of 9.5 or higher and a BB/9 rate of less than 2.0, per Louis Addeo-Weiss.
Among our best sports betting apps, DraftKings has the same price as bet365.
Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Quinn Priester is coming off the best of his first four career starts, which is not saying much considering he lasted only four innings while allowing three runs. Priester's 2.3 HR/9 rate is alarming, especially when facing an Atlanta Braves offense that is on pace for 313 home runs, which would smash the record set by the Minnesota Twins in 2019 (307).
Priester has allowed a slightly lower home run rate to left-handed hitters than righties, but lefties are also batting .333 against him. Thus, we are getting great value at FanDuel on Olson to hit his NL-leading 40th home run (his odds are as low as +205 at Caesars).
Yu Darvish is on pace for his worst ERA (4.41) since 2018 and his worst FIP (4.10) since 2019. However, he has shown improvement lately, throwing quality starts in four of his last five appearances while holding the top two highest-scoring teams in the league (Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers) to two runs over 13 innings in his previous two.
Darvish has had great success against current Mariners hitters over a small sample size, allowing a .156/.236/.235 slash line in 64 combined at-bats. This line is off the board since Seattle scratched Bryan Woo from this start late last night to Emerson Hancock, the team's top pitching prospect. However, we will make this wager as long as we are getting plus-money odds.
Wednesday's MLB game picks
The Arizona Diamondbacks are 7-22 in their last 29 games and are the only team still searching for their first win since the trade deadline. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers are an NL-best 20-9 in that same stretch and were 7-2 in their last nine series leading up to this NL West clash.
This line is lower than it should be, as Diamondbacks righty Merrill Kelly held the Dodgers to two earned runs in 9 1/3 innings over two starts earlier this year. However, Kelly is still 0-10 with a 5.45 ERA in 14 starts against L.A. and allowed a .306/.378/.511 slash line in 186 combined at-bats to current Dodgers hitters. Thus, a Dodgers lineup that ranks first in MLB in wRC+, on-base percentage, OPS, and wOBA since July 1 should have no issue battering Kelly again.
This line opened at -120 and has been bet up everywhere since then, but WynnBet is the only one of our best sports betting sites at which it has not reached -130 or higher yet.
MLB best bets made 8/9/2023 at 6:55 a.m. ET.
Here are our best MLB betting sites:
- Caesars Promo Code: SBRBONUSFULL | Read our Caesars Review
- BetMGM Bonus Code: SBRBONUS | Read our BetMGM Review
- bet365 Bonus Code: SBRBONUS | Read our bet365 Review
- BetRivers Promo Code: SBRBONUS | Read our BetRivers Review
- FanDuel Promo Code | Read our FanDuel Review
- DraftKings Promo Code | Read our DraftKings Review
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* Bonuses not applicable in Ontario.
Related pages
- Best Sports Betting Sites | Best Sportsbook Promos (U.S. only)