Major League Baseball is ready to roll with a huge Saturday night slate that includes 14 games starting after 6:00 p.m. ET. With 28 probable pitchers ready to take the mound in those matchups, DraftKings Sportsbook offers a full stack of exciting starting pitcher prop bets to consider. After taking a look at the matchups, lines and odds available, my top starting pitcher prop bets for Saturday include plays from Merrill Kelly, Kumar Rocker, and Hunter Brown
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Best Starting Pitcher Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Merrill Kelly over 5.5 strikeouts (+105)
Kelly and the Diamondbacks are in Pittsburgh against the Pirates, where I like him to go over this strikeout line as one of my top starting pitcher props of the night. Kelly has at least six strikeouts in 11 of his last 14 starts, but he has come in with five or fewer in three of his last four while struggling with his control a little bit against the Angels and Cardinals in his last two outings.
He is averaging 8.7 K/9 on the season and has been slightly better on the road, where he has an 8.8 K/9. Kelly has faced the Pirates four times in his career and is 3-0 with an ERA of 3.68 and 17 strikeouts in 22 innings.
The Pirates have the seventh-highest K% in the majors in the last month with a 23.6% K%. They have averaged 8.5 strikeouts per game in their 22 games over that span, with about a strikeout per inning.
Since Kelly is slightly above average at piling up strikeouts and the Pirates strike out at an above-average rate, I think he can get to at least six on Saturday night. I love getting it at plus-money due to a few down recent outings.
Kumar Rocker under 4.5 hits allowed (+105)
Rocker has been very good at home this season as I highlighted in my top MLB DFS plays for the day. He had one ugly outing against the Angels but has been under this hit total in four of his last six outings, so I love getting it at plus-value as well on Saturday night.
Rocker only gave up one hit to the Tigers last Saturday and has allowed four hits or fewer in each of his last three home starts. He has held opponents to a .187 batting average at home, giving up just 20 hits in 29 1/3 innings.
On the other side of the matchup, the Braves are also not picking up many hits on the road. They’re batting only .232 on the road, averaging just under 8.0 hits per game away from Truist Park.
The 25-year-old has good long-term upside, but he has shown enough immediate potential recently to make the under on this hits line a strong play against the Braves.
Hunter Brown over 7.5 strikeouts (+110)
Brown and the Astros will look to bounce back on Saturday night in Houston after losing the first two games of this series against the visiting A’s. Brown will have to deal with a red-hot Nick Kurtz, but he should be able to get over this strikeout total since I expect him to return to form after a little bit of a rough patch.
Overall in his 20 starts this season, he has been the anchor to the banged-up Astros rotation, going 9-4 with a 2.57 ERA and 2.99 FIP. He has a 10.9 K/9 this year and 31.2% K% with 144 strikeouts in 119 innings. He has been even better at home with a 33.7% K% and 11.3 K/9 at Daikin Park.
This will be his second start against the Athletics this season. When he faced them at the end of May, also in Houston, he went six strong innings with just one run allowed and picked up eight strikeouts.
The A’s have been a much-improved offense overall this season after last year’s struggles, but they still rank in the top 10 in the majors in K% at 22.8%. On the road, that ticks up to 23.4%, which should play to Brown’s advantage in Houston on Saturday night.
In his last two starts, Brown has labored but still has 15 strikeouts in nine innings. Even while he has been grinding, the young righty still has been getting enough punchouts to give him a good shot at going over this strikeout line on Saturday against the Athletics.
