Friday July 25th Best MLB Betting Picks: Shohei Ohtani HR Prop & More

Shohei Ohtani is on the longest consecutive-games homer tear of his career, and now he has Fenway Park’s Green Monster to help the cause.

Ohtani will attempt to homer in his sixth straight contest as the Los Angeles Dodgers visit the Boston Red Sox in the opener of a three-game series. If he goes deep Friday night, it would be a new Dodgers franchise record.

The Atlanta Braves are in desperation mode as they visit the Texas Rangers. The San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals clash as two teams jockeying for wild-card position.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS AT BOSTON RED SOX

Ohtani is the seventh Dodger to homer in five consecutive games. His streak began with blasts in back-to-back games against the Milwaukee Brewers and continued with a homer in each contest of a three-game sweep over the Minnesota Twins.

Ohtani leads the National League with 37 home runs and has gone deep eight times in July, despite batting just .206 for the month. He’s three games behind the all-time MLB record of homers in eight straight games, shared by Dale Long (1956), Don Mattingly (1987) and Ken Griffey Jr. (1993).

Ohtani is 4-for-8 with a double in his career against Boston starter Brayan Bello (6-4, 3.23 ERA). Bello has allowed 11 homers in 17 appearances (16 starts) this season, surrendering at least one long ball in nine outings.

Best Bet: Shohei Ohtani to homer, +230 (DraftKings)

ATLANTA BRAVES AT TEXAS RANGERS

The Braves started slowly this season, but there wasn’t much panic as Ronald Acuña Jr.’s return from an ACL tear loomed. Now, with 61 games remaining, the Braves are ahead of only three teams in the National League: the Pirates, Nationals and Rockies.

Not much the 2023 NL MVP can do now. At 13 games below .500, Atlanta would have to go 41-20 just to reach 85 wins. It’s likely over. Expect the Braves to be sellers ahead of next week’s trade deadline.

Meanwhile, the Rangers have won three straight and remain in the thick of the AL wild-card race. Nathan Eovaldi (7-3, 1.58 ERA) gets the start and is red-hot, going 3-0 with an 0.48 ERA over his last three outings.

Best Bet: Nathan Eovaldi to strike out 8 or more batters, +450 (DraftKings)

SAN DIEGO PADRES AT ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

San Diego holds the final wild-card spot in the National League, while the Cardinals are just 2.5 games back after a 9-7 win Thursday. St. Louis broke the game open with a six-run second inning, powered by three-run homers from Brendan Donovan and Willson Contreras.

The loss marked the third straight for the Padres, who dropped to 24-30 on the road despite three-hit, one-homer games from both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado.

Thursday’s win was just the third in the last 10 games for the Cardinals, but they’ve been strong at Busch Stadium, posting a 30-20 home record.

With Michael King and Yu Darvish sidelined and Dylan Cease underwhelming, right-hander Nick Pivetta (10-2, 2.81 ERA) has been the anchor of San Diego’s rotation. He’s already matched his career high in wins. St. Louis counters with Miles Mikolas (5-7, 5.20), who gave up six homers in a July 4 outing against the Cubs and has struggled to regain form since.

Best Bet: Padres -1.5 runs, +123 (DraftKings)