Rise and shine, baseball bettors. Wednesday’s slate is a matinee-heavy one, with nine of 15 games getting started in the afternoon. Don’t worry, though: With a full menu to choose from and not a ton of time, we’re here to help you narrow things down with three of our favorite plays of the day (all odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook).
MLB player prop bets: Wednesday, August 30
Logan Webb, under 2.5 earned runs (-120)
This Cincinnati Reds lineup is down all kinds of bad right now, especially against right-handed pitching. Alex Cobb entered Tuesday night’s game having completed six full innings just once in five August starts, with strikeout totals of 4, 3, 3, 3 and 4 — then went out and struck out eight while coming one batter away from a no-hitter. Cincy has the fourth-worst team OPS and the second-highest K rate in all of baseball against righties for the month; nine straight righties they’ve faced have allowed two or fewer earned runs, and things don’t figure to get any easier against Webb on Wednesday.
Sure, the Giants ace has had a rough go of it in his last couple of outings, but those both came against the powerhouse Braves — a team that’s battered just about every pitcher they’ve faced this year. Prior to that, Webb had allowed two or fewer earned runs in 17 of his first 25 starts, including seven innings of two-run ball against this same Reds team in Cincy just after the All-Star break. The righty had been cruising along in his first three August starts, nearly putting together a shutout of the Rangers a couple weeks ago, and he should thrive in this spot.
Gerrit Cole, over 18.5 outs recorded (+150)
Sure, this is a fairly high number for Cole to clear — he’s only done it in seven of his last 15 starts — but with this much juice, it’s hard not to want to roll the dice with the likely AL Cy Young winner. Cole just dominated the Rays last time out, allowing two runs (one earned) while striking out 11 over 7.2 innings of work, and he’s a solid bet to go into the seventh again facing a Tigers team that ranks in the bottom five in K rate against righties in the month of August. Outside of Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter, Detroit really doesn’t have much to offer offensively — they’ve managed just 17 runs over their last six games, and just three over the first two games of their series with New York — and getting Cole his first Cy Young Award is just about the only thing the Yankees have to play for at this point. If the ghost of Luis Severino can go seven strong against this Tigers lineup, so can Cole, especially at these odds.
Paul Goldschmidt and Tommy Edman, over 1.5 total bases (+240)
The St. Louis Cardinals get the offensive matchup of the night on Wednesday, going up against veteran Padres lefty Rich Hill. Hill has had a disastrous month since coming to San Diego at the trade deadline, pitching to a 9.00 ERA with five homers allowed across 18 innings of work. St. Louis is just playing out the string of a lost 2023 season, but this is still a plenty dangerous lineup — particularly Goldschmidt and Edman. Goldy has been on a tear over the past few days (.900 OPS over his past 13 games) and he’s crushed Hill in his career, with 12 hits, three homers and an .808 SLG in 29 career plate appearances. Edman is slugging .471 against left-handed pitching this year, far better than his mark against righties, and has a .375/.444/.625 slash line in nine career PAs against Hill.
