This Friday, Major League Baseball has 14 games under the lights with a lot of great matchups on the scoreboard heading into the weekend. A couple of the biggest series are the Phillies-Pirates meeting in a Pennsylvania battle, the Red Sox and Yankees renewing their rivalry in the Bronx, the Dodgers in St. Louis to face the Cardinals, and the Braves on the West Coast visiting the Giants. With 28 starting pitchers taking the mound across the majors, let’s find some top starting pitcher props to attack. After looking at the wide variety of starting pitcher markets on DraftKings Sportsbook, my top plays of the night come from Tarik Skubal, Dean Kremer and Chad Patrick.
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, 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
Tarik Skubal over 7.5 Strikeouts (+110)
In another one of the weekend’s best series, the Tigers are hosting the Cubs in a great interleague series. It starts with an outstanding pitching matchup between Tarik Skubal and Ben Brown. Brown has been inconsistent but has a high ceiling, while Skubal continues to be one of the top pitchers in baseball.
Skubal is following up his Cy Young season with another great campaign and is 5-2 in 12 starts with a 2.26 ERA, 1.89 FIP and an impressive 34.7% strikeout rate. He has the second-highest K/9 and K% in the majors behind only MacKenzie Gore of the Nationals. His strikeout rate and K/9 are both up from his breakthrough season, and his walk rate has dropped as well, showing his control is even better than his already elite level from last season.
In his 12 games, he has pitched 75 2/3 innings with 99 strikeouts. That means he’s averaging 8.25 strikeouts per game. He went over this strikeout line in six straight starts before getting just seven strikeouts in seven two-hit, shutout innings against the Royals.
Even though it’s a tough matchup for Skubal against a stacked Cubs offense, the over on his strikeouts is one of my top starting pitcher props since he’ll likely get punchouts even he gives up a few runs.
As a team, the Cubs have a 20.0% K%, which is below the league average, and they have also been good at strikeout suppression against lefties. Skubal is on another level, though, so I think he’ll still be able to get to this over.
Dean Kremer under 17.5 outs recorded (+110)
Kremer and the Orioles are in Sacramento to take on the Athletics at hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park. The Athletics have fallen apart lately, losing 20 of their last 22 games, but their offense still has some solid punch. They scored 14 runs on Thursday and have scored at least four runs in five of their last seven games.
In his 12 starts this season, Kremer has a total of 67 innings for an average of 5.6 innings per game, which is right on par with this over/under of 5 2/3 innings. He has been just under by an out or two in three of his last four starts and went over by just one out in his most recent start, which was home against the White Sox.
Since the Athletics’ lineup and the game environment will be much less of a favorable matchup for Kremer, I think he won’t get through six full innings, going under this prop. He has only gone over this outs recorded line one time in his eight road starts, and that was in Minnesota against the Twins.
Kremer has struggled against lefties, and the A’s are well-stocked at that spot, led by Lawrence Butler, who I highlighted in my top home run props of the day.
Chad Patrick to Record a Win (+195)
Patrick has been outstanding for the Brewers over his last several starts, and he’s in a favorable matchup against Randy Vasquez as the Brewers welcome in the Padres. The Brewers should be able to get him some run support, as I covered in my MLB stacks, and Patrick should be able to hold the struggling Padres’ lineup in check.
Over his 12 starts this season, Patrick has a 2.97 ERA, 3.30 FIP and 21.6% strikeout rate. He has allowed two earned runs or fewer in three straight outings, falling just one out short of the minimum five innings needed for a win in strong outings against Boston and Baltimore before beating the Phillies in his most recent outing.
The Brewers have won nine of their last 10 against the Phillies, Red Sox and Reds, while the Padres have gone 4-4 in their last eight despite facing the Marlins, Pirates and Giants.
Patrick is 3-4 on the year, and lots can go wrong with “to record a win” props, that need run support and help from the bullpen. However, since I like this spot for the Brew Crew lineup and Patrick has been so good, I love the value in getting him at just under +200 in the last of my starting pitcher prop bets.
