Saturday is another huge late afternoon and evening of great action from the Major League Baseball diamonds. All 30 teams are in action and the Orioles and Red Sox are even scheduled to play a doubleheader. With so many starting pitchers on the board, there are plenty of strong starting pitcher prop bets to choose from. My three top picks for Saturday include plays from Tony Gonsolin, Shane Baz and Michael King.
On Friday, I cleaned up with my second perfect three-for-three of the week in my starting pitcher prop bets. Since Monday, I’ve hit on seven of my nine picks in this regular post, so let’s stay hot and find some more green for Saturday.
Every day of the season, DraftKings Sportsbook offers multiple ways to get in on the action with player props, Moneylines and picks against the spread from each MLB contest. You can also pick series winners, award winners and team futures, as well, so be sure to check out all the options available on the MLB page of DraftKings Sportsbook.
Best Starting Pitcher Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Michael King over 5.5 strikeouts (+105)
King and the Padres are in Atlanta facing the Braves after a fun Friday night pitchers’ duel between Chris Sale and Nick Pivetta. In the second game of the series, King looks to keep the Braves in check again, so this strikeout prop is a very favorable spot to attack.
King has at least six strikeouts in six of his last seven starts and is averaging 6.4 strikeouts per start for the season. He had eight strikeouts against the Mariners and eight more against the Angels in his two most recent outings. Both those starts were at home, though, and he has struggled in two of his three road starts.
This matchup should still be favorable enough for him to go over this prop line, though, especially since the Braves rank right around league average for strikeout rate as a team and strike out slightly more against righties like King.
On Friday, Pivetta had seven strikeouts in six innings in the Padres’ win. King will look to have a similar stat line in the late afternoon matchup.
Race to Three Strikeouts: Tony Gonsolin over David Peterson (+100)
In this nice quick-hitter, I like getting Gonsolin at +100 against Peterson in the big Dodgers-Mets matchup at Citi Field. Gonsolin has a disadvantage since Peterson will pitch first in each inning as the home pitcher.
Gonsolin has a 10.8 K/9 and a 28.6% K% while Peterson has an 8.4 K/9 and 21.5% K%. In his last start, the veteran only had three strikeouts in four innings against the Angels, but he was dealing with some control problems due to some bleeding from his thumb after he picked some dead skin off the thumb after his pregame bullpen. Before that, he had 21 strikeouts in 16 innings against the Marlins twice and the D-Backs.
Peterson also had control issues in his last three starts with at least three walks in each outing, but he has racked up 17 strikeouts in 18 innings over those three appearances. He did have under three strikeouts in each of his two previous starts, though.
Both teams are similar in K% on the season, although the Mets have been striking out more lately during their recent offensive slump. The Dodgers don’t hit lefties as well as righties, but still have good strikeout suppression in the split, so I think they’ll be able to avoid striking out long enough for Gonsolin to win this race to three strikeouts in Saturday’s starting pitcher props.
Shane Baz over 2.5 earned runs allowed (-125)
Baz has allowed 3.2 earned runs per start this season and has given up at least three earned runs in four straight starts coming into his home start against the Jays.
He has given up at least five runs in three of those four outings, with the only exception being when he faced the Jays in Toronto. He gave up three runs on four hits but only made it through 4 2/3 innings in that start. In his last start, he gave up five runs in six innings against the Marlins.
Baz has especially struggled at George M. Steinbrenner Field, where he has a 6.03 ERA, 4.32 FIP and a .343 wOBA against. He will try to right the ship with his start on Saturday night, but the Jays’ offense looked pretty good in their sweep of the Padres before only managing one run on Friday. I expect Toronto to bounce back and get to Baz, pushing him over this number in my starting pitcher prop bets.
Baz’s runs allowed odds also can be used as a ladder with 4+ runs at +155 and 5+ runs at +295.
