Top 3 MLB Odds, Picks & Predictions: Friday (4/3)
Baseball season is underway, the weather is getting warmer, and life is good. I'll be here once a week to provide you with the best bets across the day. Baseball is the best sport to get specific with your bets, and there are plenty of angles to attack any given game, with almost every day offering a loaded slate of opportunities. It's the best time of year.
It was not the best start to open the season, but only one direction to go. Here are the best MLB picks & predictions for the Friday, April 3rd slate.
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Friday’s Best MLB Picks & Predictions
Last Time: 0-3 | This Season: 0-3
Atlanta Braves vs. Arizona Diamondbacks
After finishing the year with a 5.02 ERA, Eduardo Rodriguez shone to open his 2026 campaign, spinning 5.0 IP against the Dodgers with one unearned run allowed. After losing weight this offseason, the early return is promising. Kyle Farmer is the only Braves batter who really has a solid history against the southpaw, and he's not even expected to be in the starting lineup. Grant Holmes earns the nod for Atlanta, and his home/road splits a year ago were stark. In Atlanta, Holmes tallied a 2.93 ERA across 12 starts in 2025; that number jumped to 5.51 away from home, allowing a .792 OPS against. The problem is the bullpen. After Atlanta teed off against the D-Backs bullpen last night, scoring 10 runs after Ryne Nelson was pulled, the Diamondbacks bullpen ERA is skewed, but they're still bad. Meanwhile, Atlanta's bullpen ERA ranks third best early in the year. I like the starting matchup here for Arizona, but that's about as far as I can go.
Pick: Arizona Diamondbacks 1st 5 Innings ML (-110 DraftKings)
Toronto Blue Jays vs. Chicago White Sox
Dylan Cease is coming home, and I expect the White Sox not to want to see their former star pitch again at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Toronto starter went off to open the season with 12 strikeouts across 5.1 IP against the Athletics. While the A's have tallied the second most strikeouts offensively this season with 74, Chicago is right on their tail at 73. They've only played on the road so far, and having a home crowd for the home opener should give them a bit of a boost, but their contact with the ball is concerning. Cease has tallied 200-plus strikeouts in five straight seasons, and I expect him to continue building towards that. While I don't expect him to get 12 again here, double-digits is well within reach. The current line on FanDuel is 6.5, which is insane but heavily juiced. Feel free to bet some alts here.
Pick: Dylan Cease Alt 8+ Strikeouts (+116 FanDuel)
New York Mets v.s San Francisco Giants
After a promising campaign across eight starts in his rookie year, Nolan McLean picked up right where he left off against the Pirates in his first start of the year, spinning 5.0 IP while allowing two earned runs with eight K's in an eventual no-decision. Across his nine-game career, McLean has allowed a .201/.281/.307 slashline while Harrison Bader is the only currently rostered Giant to have seen McLean in action. The Giants’ offense has been off to a slow start with the fifth fewest runs across the first week-plus of baseball, and that's in seven games compared to most teams having only played six. Combine that with the Mets' early 1.86 bullpen ERA in 29.0 IP, and I expect the Giants to struggle scoring here.
Pick: Giants Under 3.5 Team Total Runs (-120 DraftKings)