Welcome to Thursday Fantasy Alarm MLB bettors! This will be my first piece in the month of August after a few days off but the rest was much needed and it gave me more time to sit back and take in some MLB stats and trends that should pay huge dividends over the next 4 days with myself writing these articles. Not a full slate of action tonight but there are many games spread out throughout the day to get some bets in no doubt. Today's piece features some game totals, a strikeout prop and a batters prop and I love all of the action I have for today so let's just dive right into those wagers for today August 3rd!

  • Sunday's Record: 3-1
  • Season Record: 58-53-3
  • Bankroll: -0.78 units
 

MLB Best Bets for August 3

Arizona Diamondbacks at San Francisco Giants  

The Wild Card race in the National League is heating up big time as the Giants sit in pole position and the Diamondbacks are just 1 game back right now! The story is different for each club though as the Dbacks have floundered in the past month and have lost 7 of their last 10 games while the Giants are surging, especially at home. They have done so with consistent pitching and bullpen work but today might be more of a struggle as they are going to send out an opener. Scott Alexander will give an inning and then who knows so Arizona and its offense of young stars could have an opening. On the other side Brandon Pfaadt will start for the Diamondbacks and he's had a rough go with a 8.20 ERA and WHIP of up to 1.63 right now. He has also allowed at least 3 earned runs in each of his last 5 starts coming into today. All of this has me looking at the over in today's game as they projected run total given each teams numbers sits at 9.19 for the game at the line has been set at just 8 on some books. That's a pretty big edge to be getting and one I will be jumping on. 

Pick: Diamondbacks & Giants Over 8 Runs (-140 on Caesars) 

Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Angels 

Any time that Shohei Ohtani is pitching you have my attention. That is especially the case in must win games down the stretch and they are facing off against a divisional opponent in the Seattle Mariners. Now Ohtani has been allowing more runs than usual his last 4 starts with 14 over 25.1 innings but of those starts two came against the Astros and Padres so maybe we can cut him some slack on that. The Mariners are a much different team as they average just 4.53 runs per game and have a projected runs total of 4.39 on the road. They also strikeout often at 9.89 times per game so I smell a strikeout prop for the Angels ace today as his line sits at 7.5 for tonight. Ohtani has cleared this number in his last 2 starts and 11 times on the season making this bet firmly in play. 

Pick: Shohei Ohtani Over 7.5 Strikeouts (-145 on BetRivers)

Cincinnati Reds at Chicago Cubs 

This will be the 4th game of this series tonight and all of the games leading up tonight have had some silly numbers. Through 3 games there have been a total of 63 runs scored and I don't really see that slowing down in the finale given the pitching matchup of the starters. Luke Weaver will go for the Reds with his 6.80 ERA and he will go up against Jameson Taillon and his 5.46 ERA. They may as well be sacrificial lambs for these offenses tonight as the Reds average 4.93 runs per game on the road and the Cubs average 5.36 runs per game at home. With the stats given we are going to see fireworks so the game total of 10 runs while it is a large number is just not set high enough. Let's add a player prop though too as we expect some big time runs! I am looking at Cody Bellinger tonight hitting from the cleanup spot tonight as he has crushed right handed pitching this season with a .301 batting average, 34 runs and 31 RBIs on the season. He has topped his number of 1.5 hits, runs and RBIs in his last 3 games and with this game looking like a scoring bonanza I am going to jump right in on this prop tonight. 

Pick: Reds & Cubs Over 10 Runs (-115 on DraftKings)

Pick: Cody Bellinger Over 1.5 Hits/Runs/RBIs (-150 on DraftKings)

**all bets are one unit unless specifically mentioned.