With such a short list of games on today's schedule, why not make sure all of our MLB picks count? Find out which three of today's matchups we are looking to add to our baseball betting parlay to help maximize our payouts today.

Thursday gives us a somewhat limited baseball betting schedule to play with, but we'll try to make it work. Here are a few things that catch our eye, as far as some money-making baseball betting propositions go. 

Phillies at Nationals, Hamels vs. Detwiler 

Cole hamelsIt looks like Philly has finally, wisely, thrown in the towel for this season. The Phillies are 10 games under .500 and 12 games out of the closest National League playoff spot. So in conceding that this might not be one of their years they recently traded a couple of veteran outfielders, Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence, and they might not be done dealing yet. 

Washington, meanwhile, leads the NL East by 2.5 games over Atlanta. 

But the Phillies have taken the first two games of this series in DC by scores of 8-0 and 3-2.

Hamels has been tough on the Nats this year, beating them twice by allowing just one ER over 16 innings of work. But he's also given up eight ER in his last two starts combined, covering 12 2/3 innings. 

Detwiler got bounced around a bit by the Brewers his last time out, but in his two starts before that he held the Mets and Braves to one ER through 14 innings. 

With two lefties going we look to these teams' records against LH starting pitchers. And while the Nationals are 17-13 against Southpaws this year, Philly is only 12-21

So we'll go with a home team trying to avoid a sweep and take Washington.

MLB Pick: Take Washington

Angels at Rangers, Wilson vs. Dempster

CJ WilsonLA took the first two games of this series by scores of 15-8 and 6-2, but Texas got on the board with a four-run rally in the bottom of the 10th inning Wednesday to win 11-10.

So the Rangers now lead the AL West by four games over the Angels. 

Dempster will be making his first start for his new team after coming down in a trade with the Cubs. A couple of weeks ago he had ground his ERA down to 1.86, but in his last two starts with Chicago he gave up seven ER in 12 innings, which “rocketed” his ERA to 2.25. 

On the season Dempster has allowed just 81 hits in 104 innings. 

Wilson, meanwhile, will be going against his former team for the fourth time this season, after defecting to Los Angeles over the winter. In his first start against the Rangers this year he got bopped for four runs in one-third of an inning before the rains came and ended his night early. But in his two starts against Texas since then he's held them to two ER over 11 2/3 innings. 

Two of the first three games in this series have played 'OVER' on the totals, but for the year games played at The Ballpark have gone 22-30 on the totals. Also, the O/Us are 7-14 in Wilson's starts this year, 5-10 in Dempster's starts. So we're going to add the 'UNDER' to our MLB picks tonight.

MLB Pick: Take the UNDER

Cardinals at Rockies, Lynn vs. White 

St. Louis has taken the first two games of this series by scores of 11-6 and 9-6. 

So the Cardinals sit seven games off the pace in the NL Central, but only three games out in the NL Wild-Card scrum. 

Colorado, meanwhile, well, let's not get into that. 

St. Louis is 15-5 in Lynn's starts this season, while the Rockies are 3-7 in White's starts. So we're going with the Cardinals to complete the sweep.

MLB Pick: Take St. Louis

A Three-team Parlay, Anyone? 

For those so inclined, a three-team parlay with Washington at -110, St. Louis at -145 and the 'under' 10.5 on the Texas-Angels game at -115 would pay off at odds of right about 5/1. To us, that's a perfectly reasonable proposition.