Monday’s MLB slate brings 10 games, and with the playoffs creeping closer, a few wild-card contenders are front and center in the betting conversation.
The home-run market is always a tricky one. A single swing can cash the ticket, but the long season also reminds you how rare that swing really is.
Still, there are spots worth attacking when the matchup and the recent power trend line up. For Aug. 10, three bats stand out: Boston’s Wilyer Abreu, Baltimore’s Pete Alonso and Texas shortstop Corey Seager.
Abreu has been one of the hottest power bats in Boston’s lineup lately. He enters Monday with 20 home runs on the season and has gone deep three times in his last five games, while also putting together a .438 batting average and a 1.584 OPS over that stretch. The Red Sox outfielder gets the Toronto Blue Jays and right-hander Jameson Taillon, and that’s enough to make him a target.
Taillon has had major issues keeping the ball in the park this season, surrendering 26 home runs in 16 appearances. He also allowed a homer in four innings during his debut with Toronto earlier this month, and his ERA sits at 5.96 overall.
Abreu has not faced Taillon before, but the split data is encouraging enough: he has 15 homers against right-handed pitching in 2026. He’s been better against lefties in terms of batting average, hitting .326, but the current form and the matchup make him a live play.
Taillon has only three outings this year in which he didn’t allow a home run.
On the other side of the board, the Orioles are facing a familiar face in Dean Kremer, who was dealt to the Minnesota Twins at the deadline and is set for his second start with the club Monday night. Kremer has made eight appearances this season and owns a 5.93 ERA with 12 home runs allowed. He held the damage to one run in his debut with Minnesota, but that hasn’t changed the profile enough to trust him here.
That brings Alonso into the picture. The first baseman has delivered for Baltimore this season, hitting 25 home runs with an .818 OPS.
He’s also showing steady power form right now, with three homers in his last 12 games and a .951 OPS last week across six games, when he left the yard twice. Against right-handed pitching, Alonso has hit .260 and launched 19 of his 25 homers.
At +329, he offers strong value against a pitcher who’s been vulnerable to the long ball, especially with the Twins’ bullpen ranking in the bottom five in MLB in ERA this season.
Seager is the third name worth a look. Texas has not gotten the season it wanted from its shortstop, who is hitting under .200 and has appeared in only 59 games because of injuries.
Even so, he has still hit 11 home runs, which works out to roughly one every five games. Since coming off the injured list, Seager has looked sharper, batting .286 with a homer and a .783 OPS over eight games.
The matchup with the Angels and left-hander Reid Detmers is also appealing. Seager has seen Detmers plenty and has gone 5-for-20 with a home run against him, good for a .823 OPS in the matchup.
Detmers has struggled to suppress power this year, allowing 17 home runs in 23 appearances and nine homers in six starts since July 1. The Angels’ bullpen has also been shaky, carrying a 4.40 ERA and giving up 58 home runs in 2026.
Seager is still a volatile bat because of the batting average, but this looks like one of his better spots since returning from the IL.
In Other News...
Pete Alonso Finally Gave Orioles Fans A Reason To Feel Hope
The Orioles have spent much of this season trying to steady themselves through a rough stretch, and the trade deadline only added to the unease when Adley Rutschman was dealt to Boston. Sitting fourth in the American League East at 56-61, Baltimore has not given its fans many reasons to look past the standings, which is why Pete Alonsos latest outburst carried a little extra weight for a club still searching for something to build on.
Against the Rangers, Alonso gave Baltimore exactly the kind of jolt it has been missing, and he did it with a performance that felt like a small glimpse of what the lineup could become. Even with the seasons frustrations still hanging around, Alonso sounded optimistic about where the Orioles can go from here, a note of confidence that landed at the right time for a fan base that badly needed one. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Waste Another Strong Start As Familiar Problems Return
Kyle Bradish gave the Orioles exactly what they needed for most of the night, working through six innings and holding Texas to two runs, but Baltimore still came away with a 5-1 loss in its third straight game against the Rangers. The offense never found much rhythm beyond Jackson Hollidays solo home run, and when the margin stayed tight, the kind of miscues the Orioles have been trying to put behind them surfaced again.
Defensive errors helped open the door for the Rangers scoring, turning another solid starting effort into an uphill climb Baltimore could not reverse. For a club trying to steady itself, the combination of missed chances, shaky defense and too little support for Bradish is becoming an all-too-familiar script, and it leaves the Orioles with more questions than answers as this series winds down. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Offensive Collapse Is Raising Bigger Questions About This Roster
Since June 1, the Orioles offense has slid into a stretch that is hard to ignore, with the club sitting near the bottom of the league in runs scored, batting average, slugging percentage and on-base plus slugging. Injuries have played a role, but the bigger concern is that the problems have lingered even when the lineup has had enough available pieces to produce more than it has.
What makes the slump sting for Baltimore is that it has started to look less like a temporary dry spell and more like a broader roster issue. The conversation has moved beyond who is hurt and into how the team is building lineups and using its players, which is where the questions get sharper for a club that expected more from its core and its depth. [Read more 🡒]