Top MLB Betting Picks of the Week – April 8th Edition

Things are already settling out as the sports betting establishment had predicted for many of the teams in Major League Baseball. Baltimore, which started 3-1, is now 4-5 after getting swept over the weekend at home by the Yankees — who have moved to 5-4 after a slow start. Boston is still struggling with starting pitching, posting the largest ERA in MLB, but their 1-0 win in Arizona was a good sign that the pitching is coming around. Texas had started 5-2 but then dropped three straight to the AL West basement-dwelling Los Angeles Angels. The Houston Astros are still scuffling a bit, as are the Chicago Cubs, off to a slow 2-7 start while Milwaukee already has a 5 ½ game lead over the Cubs in the NL Central. What games should you wager on this week in the national pastime? Check out our top MLB betting picks for the week.

Top MLB Betting Picks of the Week – April 8th Edition

MLB Power Rankings: Dodgers, Phillies living up to expectations; Yankees starting to look like themselves https://t.co/W5z4qbTRS4 pic.twitter.com/AzTyGrDGEX

— SportsRadio 740 (@SportsRadio_740) 8 de abril de 2019

Tuesday, April 9

Toronto at Boston (2:00pm ET, ESPN)

• Projected Pitching Matchup: Matt Shoemaker (2-0, 0.00 ERA) (TOR) vs Chris Sale (0-2, 8.00 ERA) (BOS)

Boston is off to a 3-8 start after opening the season with an 11-game West Coast swing. That swing ended on Sunday with a 1-0 win over Arizona, and that victory over the Diamondbacks allowed the team to fly back across the country for their home opener with some optimism. The Red Sox will send Chris Sale to the mound for their first game at Fenway, and Sale has had a dreadful start and a great start, but the offense failed him in his second game. He opened by permitting seven earned runs on six hits in three innings in a 12-4 loss to Seattle. He followed that up in Oakland with six sparkling innings of three-hit, one-run ball. More encouragingly, he got 10 ground ball outs as opposed to the three he got in Seattle, where he also permitted three home runs. Toronto is also off to a 3-8 start to the season, but that is much more in line with projections for what looks to be a rebuilding year for the Blue Jays. Matt Shoemaker has two of those three wins, though, and has yet to permit an earned run. He beat Detroit on March 29 and Baltimore on April 3, throwing a combined 14 innings and permitting just four hits and walking three. He has 15 strikeouts on the young season. Can Shoemaker continue this momentum against a Boston team that will receive their World Series rings and open in front of one of the most demonstrative home crowds in all of baseball? I’m betting on Sale and the Sox bouncing back. MLB Betting Prediction: Boston 4, Toronto 2

Washington at Philadelphia (7:05pm ET)

• Projected Pitching Matchup: Stephen Strasburg (1-0, 2.84 ERA) (WAS) vs Aaron Nola (1-0, 7.00 ERA) (PHI)

Once again, the Washington Nationals are finding themselves looking up at the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East, and now that Bryce Harper is wearing a Phillies uniform, it could stay that way. Stephen Strasburg takes the hill for the Nationals, and the hope is that his dominant arm strength has returned. He got shelled on March 30 by the Mets, permitting four runs on seven hits over six innings, but then he threw a gem on April 4, shutting down those same Mets over 6 ⅔ innings, scattering three hits and a walk. Can he go to Philadelphia and shut down a hot lineup in a small park? Philadelphia will start Aaron Nola on Tuesday. Like Strasburg, Nola has had a solid outing and a shaky one, but his solid one came first, as he threw six innings of two-hit, one-run ball against the Braves on Opening Day. However, the Nationals lit him up on April 3, slamming three home runs and scoring six runs on five hits. Can Nola find his form in an important early season divisional matchup? With the game moving to Philadelphia, I would bet that he can. MLB Betting Prediction: Philadelphia 5, Washington 2