Ricky Dimon
The second week of the 2025 Major League Baseball season continues on Saturday with a full 15-game schedule. I’m 8-2 through 5 days of this piece and the Pickswise MLB handicapping team as a whole is an amazing 14-2. Let’s keep it going as we get into my MLB best bets of the day!
Also don’t forget to check out our MLB picks for Friday’s slate. Additionally, don’t miss our 2025 MLB futures guide, which features win total futures, best bets on the MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year, division winner selections and World Series predictions from our team of experts.
MLB best bet: New York Yankees vs. Pittsburgh Pirates F5 Over 4.5 (-160)
Odds available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing
The Yankees have torpedoed their way to 62 runs through 7 games. Not including the Cubs (who have played 10 games), no other team has more than 51 runs and nobody else in the American League has crossed the plate more than 40 times. The Bronx Bombers are off to a record pace with 23 homers, including 6 by Aaron Judge and 4 apiece for Jazz Chisolm Jr. and Anthony Volpe. Pittsburgh’s Bailey Falter faltered in his final start of the 2024 season against none other than the Yankees, who tagged him for 4 runs on 4 hits (1 dinger) in just 3.0 innings.
Meanwhile, the Pirates own Marcus Stroman. Tommy Pham is 6-for-12 lifetime with 4 walks; Bryan Reynolds is 5-for-10; Adam Frazier is 5-for-13; Joey Bart is 3-for-4 with a home run. I expect plenty of runs, especially in the early stages of Saturday’s contest. Let’s take the bullpens out of the equation and back the F5 over.
Read our full Yankees vs Pirates prediction
MLB best bet: Arizona Diamondbacks ML over Washington Nationals (-126)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing
Arizona was a winner for me on Friday (-136 on the money line) and I’m going right back to the well for game 2 of this series against Washington. The Nationals are pretty much always an enticing fade opportunity and Saturday is no exception. They are 1-6, having dropped a 3-game series against Philadelphia before getting swept by Toronto and then losing 6-4 to the Diamondbacks on Friday. The Nats actually won Mitchell Parker’s first start, but the sample size of success is small and last year he went 7-10 with a 4.29 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.
Friday’s victory was Arizona’s fifth of the season and its fifth in the last 7 outings. Eduardo Rodriguez is a solid but unspectacular starting pitcher. Fortunately for the Snakes, a mediocre effort on the mound should be enough to get the job done against the lowly Nationals. ‘Zona has scored at least 6 runs in 6 of 8 contests, including performances of 8 and 10 runs in a pair of wins over the Cubs. Count on the visitors once again having too much offense in this one.
