Before heading out to the golf course for a day of hacking it around we better get down on a little MLB betting action, so we've got something to root for at the 19th hole later today. So without further ado, here are my top mlb picks for Saturday.

Mets at Nationals, Niese vs. Jackson

Washington is the best team in baseball, while New York, after a promising start to this season, has hit the skids.

The Nats have won 11 of their last 13 games, while the Mets have lost 23 of their last 33. Washington also owns the season series eight games to two.

Follow my full coverage on this series.

On paper this pitching matchup looks pretty even. New York might even hold a slight advantage, as we see it, because Niese has been pretty good in spots this year, while Jackson has been, shall we say, less than consistent. But for this game it's just a matter of who the better team is, who's hot and who's not. So we're going with Washington at -145 on the MLB betting lines, and we'll try to get in before the price gets much higher.

MLB Picks: Nationals

Dodgers at Braves, Harang vs. Sheets

Sheets has had a nice little run to open his comeback, but he is coming off an iffy outing vs. the Mets. Nine earned runs in 38 innings is nice, but we're wondering how much longer he can keep that up.

On the other side of this matchup LA is only 11-12 in Harang's starts this year, but we just happened to be on him a couple of times when they won. So our thoughts on Harang might be a bit biased, because we're comfortable putting cash down on him. 

Atlanta won the opener of this series Friday night 4-3, scoring twice in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game, then winning it in the bottom of the 11th.

This is a big game, with both teams trying to track down playoff spots. The Braves have won four in a row, and taken a firm hold of one of the two NL Wild-Card spots, while the Dodgers have lost two straight to fall out of first in the NL West.

We expect LA to get this series back to even Saturday, so we're taking the Dodgers with the +140 underdog price.

MLB Picks: Dodgers +140

Rangers at Blue Jays, Oswalt vs. Villanueva

Toronto took the opener of this series Friday night 3-2, but the previous five games in this series this season had all played 'over' on the totals.

Oswalt gets the start for Texas today after some time in the pen, after getting bombed three times recently. We'd like to think he's still got something left in the tank, but to be honest we're just not sure there is.

Villanueva, meanwhile, is coming off a good outing, although before that he'd allowed 12 runs in his previous 23 innings.

The Rangers lead all of baseball in scoring at over five runs per game, and rank 16th in team ERA at 4.04. The Jays, meanwhile, rank eighth in scoring at almost 4.7 runs per game, but 26th in team ERA at 4.55.

Also, the totals are 31-25 in games played at Rogers Centre this year.

So we're going with the 'over' nine runs on this one, at a price of around +105.

MLB Picks: OVER 9

Hook 'Em, Dano

If we were to parlay these three MLB picks – the Nats at -145, the Dodgers at +140 and the 'over' on the Rangers-Jays at +105 - and it hit, it would pay out at odds of better than 7/1. Hey, that might cover a round of drinks in the clubhouse later on.