MLB Best Bets Today June 3

All 30 teams take the field at 6:40 p.m. ET or later on Tuesday, as we have a full card of night games on June 3. Six games from each league and three interleague matchups await MLB fans and handicappers, as we have pitching matchups that run the gamut tonight. There are some aces, there are some unknown faces, and a whole lot of in between on the card.

A couple weather worries are out there, most notably in Tampa, where it’s June in Florida and rain seems to always be hanging in some way, shape, or form. Like I’ve said before, these weather games are good to keep an eye on, as late starts could psych both teams out a bit, as they’ll want to just get the game in and go back home or to the hotel, but the best spots are games likely to start and then get delayed for looking at pitcher prop Unders.

This article will run Monday-Saturday and I’ll write up a standalone preview for Sunday Night Baseball on Sundays. This year, we’ll also have MLB best bets from Greg Peterson posted with overnight lines.

My tracking sheet is here. For transparency sake, I also have tracking for my three MLB seasons at VSiN (2024, 2023, 2022).

Odds are from DraftKings Sportsbook because they are widely available to readers and because of some of our betting tools. I highly, highly, highly encourage you to shop around for the best lines. Sometimes they will be at DK. Oftentimes, they will not. Do what you can to shop around and get as much bang for your buck as possible.

Feel free to use my opinions and thoughts, as well as our suite of MLB Betting Tools, including the DraftKings and Circa Betting Splits, Steve Makinen’s Daily Ratings, Greg Peterson’s Daily Lines, the 1st 5 Innings Analyzer, and Umpire Stats.

Here are the MLB best bets today for June 3:

Chicago Cubs (-155, 9.5) at Washington Nationals

6:45 p.m. ET

Cade Horton and Trevor Williams are the slated starters here, as Williams makes his 173rd career MLB start and Horton makes his fourth. Williams is closing in on 1,000 career innings and is a couple years away from that all-important 10 years of MLB service time to qualify for the league’s pension plan. Horton has been a big leaguer for less than a month.

While Horton has found some pretty immediate success, I’m taking a chance fading him today. Why? Because his three MLB starts have come against the Rockies, Marlins, and White Sox. In those starts, Horton has allowed six runs on 17 hits in 16.1 innings of work. His other MLB appearance was a relief effort against the Mets back on May 10 and he allowed three runs on four hits.

The Nationals are a top-10 offense by wOBA over the last 14 days. The White Sox, who are actually about a league-average unit over the last two weeks, scored three runs in five innings against Horton. The Marlins and Rockies found a lot less success and that start against Colorado was at Wrigley Field.

So, I think this is a pretty notable step up in class for the young right-hander, who has allowed a 10.9% Barrel% and a 43.8% Hard Hit% in 64 batted ball events to start his MLB career. He’s generated some pretty impressive swinging strike rates, but the Nationals are one of the best contact-oriented lineups in the league, while the Rockies are absolutely not and the Marlins are not a particularly good offense either.

It’ll be a warm one in D.C. today as well, with first-pitch temps in the low 80s and warm conditions throughout the game. Horton has allowed four homers in his four outings and that high Barrel% that I mentioned.

Nationals 1st 5 Team Total Over 2.5 is +124 at DK and that’s a good look in my opinion. I’m not sure about Williams, who has a lot of positive regression signs in his profile, against the Cubs, so I don’t think I want to back the Nationals 1st 5 or even try the full game, as their bullpen stinks.

Pick: Nationals 1st 5 Team Total Over 2.5 (+114)

Detroit Tigers (-175, 8.5) at Chicago White Sox

7:40 p.m. ET

The Tigers and White Sox continue their AL Central rivalry tonight with a matchup between Shane Smith and TBD, with TBD expected to either be an opener or Sawyer Gipson-Long, who will be making his first MLB appearance since September 2023. SGL is returning from Tommy John surgery and an internal brace procedure. In five rehab starts, he worked 16.1 innings and allowed four runs on 14 hits with 16 strikeouts against just two walks.

He stands 6-foot-4 and is a sinker/slider/changeup type of guy whose velocity plays up because he has 99th percentile Extension. He struck out 26 over 20 innings during a four-start stretch in September 2023 with a 2.70 ERA and a 3.16 FIP. Unfortunately, he needed the internal brace procedure in April of last season, but he’s ready to come back and fill in with Jackson Jobe and Reese Olson both still sidelined.

The White Sox are 30th in wOBA and 29th in wRC+ against righties over the last 30 days, so SGL should be in pretty good shape here for an ease back into his MLB career. The Tigers may opt to use an opener, though Brant Hurter is supposed to open a bullpen game tomorrow. Detroit only had to use two low-leverage relievers yesterday with the blowout win, so the high-leverage guys are in good shape.

Smith has been the biggest bright spot in another lost season for the White Sox. He enters with a 2.68 ERA, 3.68 xERA, and a 3.67 FIP over his 11 starts across 57 innings. He has a 7.1% HR/FB%, so he doesn’t get burned by the long ball and has a 12.2% SwStr%. He’s struggled a little bit here lately against the Cubs, Mariners, and Mets, but he’s stepping back in class here. Over the last 14 days, the Tigers have just a .295 wOBA with a 90 wRC+ and the third-highest K% in the league at 26.1%.

Detroit also has the fifth-highest K% against RHP over the last 30 days at 24.5%. Smith should be able to use swinging strikes to get ahead in counts or get back into them and keep the Tigers at bay.

The Tigers have the top bullpen by fWAR over the last 14 days and the White Sox seem to be finding a little more success getting relief outs.

Pick: Tigers/White Sox Under 8.5 (-108)

San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants (-162, 8)

9:45 p.m. ET

The Padres and Giants battle it out in some NL West action, as San Diego took down a 1-0 decision yesterday. It will be Ryan Bergert for the Friars and Landen Roupp for the Gigantes. This is a really tough spot for the Padres, who have used Robert Suarez and Jason Adam three of the last four days. Adrian Morejon has pitched back-to-back days. Their low-leverage guys worked heavy on Sunday.

So, I can’t take San Diego, but I do think that Bergert is a really interesting guy here. He’s made four relief appearances for the Padres, but nine starts down at Triple-A, where he has a 23.9% K% and a 13.6% SwStr% despite a lot of problems throwing first-pitch strikes. Under the hood, the raw stuff is really good for Bergert, who throws a lot of fastballs, but also has a much improved slider.

The Giants are -32.1 Batting Runs against fastballs per Statcast. That is far and away the worst in the league. The only team in that area is Colorado and the Rockies are -23.4 Batting Runs on that pitch. I think Bergert can use his elevated fastball to get swings and misses in this start. Like I said, he’s being viewed mostly as a reliever, but he has worked deeper into games in the minors, including 11 strikeouts over five innings against the Dodgers’ Triple-A team back on April 3.

I think Over 3.5 Strikeouts at plus money is worth a look here. Bergert may not have the accomplishments of other Padres starters at the MLB level, but Padres pitchers do have a 32.4% K% against Giants hitters this season.

Pick: Ryan Bergert (Padres) Over 3.5 Strikeouts (+105)

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