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Chris Sale best prop bet for Braves vs. Padres on Friday 5/23/25

Chris Sale best prop bet for Braves vs. Padres on Friday 5/23/25

Sports Betting Picks MLB DraftKings Sportsbook Insights

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By: Zach Thompson

The Braves send Chris Sale to the hill as they welcome the Padres for a nice three-game series at Truist Park starting this Friday. The Braves begin the series 24-25 overall but are 15-7 this season at home. The Padres are 27-21 on the season but just 11-13 on the road after dropping six straight games to the Mariners at home and the Blue Jays in Toronto.

Sale will look to get the Braves back to .500 on the season as he faces his former teammate Nick Pivetta in the series opener. It’s expected to be a low-scoring tame, and Sale’s Braves are favored at -180 on the moneyline with a game total of 7.5 combined runs.

Here’s my top Chris Sale prop bet for his start on Friday.

Chris Sale 8+ strikeouts (+145)

Sale has at least eight strikeouts in each of his last four starts and is averaging 7.2 Ks per outing on the season. He had 10 strikeouts in two starts against the Rockies and Reds before eight strikeouts in each of his last two outings on the road against the Pirates and Red Sox.

At home this season, the reigning NL Cy Young winner has racked up 23 strikeouts in 15 2/3 innings with a 31.5% strikeout rate and 1.5 strikeouts per inning. Especially with Ronald Acuna Jr. making his return and the Padres in town in a playoff-type atmosphere, Sale should come out fired up and ready to rack up Ks on Friday.

The Padres’ offense has gone almost completely missing during their six-game skid over the last week. They are hitting only .201 as a team with a total of nine runs (1.5 runs per game). While they’re normally among the best in the league at strikeout suppression, they have the sixth-highest K% during that one-week span with 51 punchouts in six games (8.5 per game). They also have higher strikeout rates against lefties and on the road.

All of San Diego’s splits point to above-average strikeouts in this matchup, and Sale’s average lately has been over eight strikeouts per game. Getting it at plus money makes this my favorite Sale prop of the night, since even if they do reach him for a few runs, he should be able to get his Ks.

Zach Thompson
Zach has been part of the DraftKings team since 2017 and covers baseball, basketball, golf, football and any other sport that offers DFS fun. He has been playing fantasy sports since box scores were only available in the newspaper the following day. Even though he grew up almost 8,000 miles away in Guam, he is a diehard Boston sports fan but will take a fantasy value play wherever he can get it, even if it’s from the Yankees.
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