Best MLB Bets Today: Thursday’s Games Have Us Seeing Red

We are seeing red today as we share our two favorite bets. The first is a game between NL East rivals as the Miami Marlins face off against the Philadelphia Phillies. The other comes from a matchup between the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Below is our favorite bet for each game. We’ll use odds from FanDuel Sportsbook, which offers a welcome bonus of $150 in Bonus Bets to new bettors who sign up and win their initial wager of $5+.

For more betting opportunities, check out our list of the best MLB betting sites and our curated list of MLB promos and bonuses.

Best MLB Bets Today: Marlins vs. Phillies (6:20 PM EST)

Phillies -1.5 (-126) at FanDuel Sportsbook

The price isn’t great, but this may be the safest bet of the week. The Phillies have the better team (by a lot), but they also will enter the game as a home favorite. They are covering 57.9% of run lines in that scenario, more often than any other team in the league. By comparison, the Marlins are covering run lines 48.7% of the time as a road underdog, the seventh-worst mark in the league. 

The Phillies will also have a significant advantage on the mound tonight in Zach Wheeler (9-4, 2.73 ERA, 0.96 WHIP). The veteran ace was hit hard by the Marlins earlier this season, but they caught him on an off day. Wheeler faced a much better Marlins team four times last season and delivered a quality start in each outing. We expect another to be posted by the ace tonight.

The Marlins will have Trevor Rogers (1-8, 4.90 ERA, 1.55 WHIP) starting opposite Wheeler tonight. The 26-year-old has struggled in the big leagues, and this season has been no different. While he is having a decent June, the team has still lost by multiple runs in three of his four starts. 

As well as Rogers has been pitching late, he will be facing a Phillies team that crushed him last month. He allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits and two walks over just 3 ⅓ innings. That was far from a fluke, given the Phillies’ incredible offensive success this season. The team has scored the fourth most runs in the league and ranks third in batting average. Rogers’s recent success has come against mediocre lineups, and we see him regressing in a big way against a far more challenging test tonight.

Bet on Phillies -1.5 (-126) at FanDuel 

Best MLB Bets Today: Reds vs. Cardinals (7:45 PM EST)

Cardinals ML (-130) at FanDuel Sportsbook

Don’t look now, but the Cardinals are turning their season around. They have raised their record above the .500 mark and revived their hopes for an NL Central title. Conversely, the Reds have gone from contenders to losing eight of their previous 11 games. The streak has sent them to the bottom of the division standings and is a big reason we are betting against them today.

The Reds will have one of their promising young starts tonight in Andrew Abbott (6-6, 3.40 ERA, 1.18 WHIP). The 25-year-old has been remarkable for the Reds this season, but he was shelled by the Cardinals a month ago. He allowed six runs on seven hits across six innings, leading to a 7-1 loss. While it is the only real blemish on his season, he again allowed six runs to the Cardinals when he faced him at the end of last season. We like that trend to continue against a vastly improved Cardinals team.

The Cardinals will have veteran Mile Mikolas (6-6, 4.68 ERA, 1.16 WHIP) making the start tonight. The righty was brutal to begin the season but has turned things around over his last seven starts. He owns a 3.18 ERA with a 4-1 record during that span. We expect him to stay hot tonight against a Reds team that ranks twenty-sixth in batting average.

Bet on Cardinals ML (-130) at FanDuel 

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