This is it. This is the week that baseball fans have been waiting for all year long. With less than a week remaining in the regular season, there’s still so much undecided in the MLB postseason picture. Heck, there’s only one American League team that’s even clinched a spot in the dance.
Here are my top two bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for tonight’s critical action on the diamond, with all 30 teams taking the field.
New York Mets at Chicago Cubs
Cubs ML (-110)
I’m having a difficult time wrapping my head around the Cubs as home underdogs on Tuesday night. Yes, this game means far more to the Mets, who are currently tied with the Reds for the final Wild Card spot in the National League; but a lot of games have been important for New York the past couple of weeks, and the team is just 4-11 since September 6. Urgency doesn’t seem to be helping much.
The variable that is the toughest to project in this tilt is the leash Craig Counsell is willing to give Cade Horton. Including six starts in Triple-A, Horton has thrown 144.0 innings so far in 2025. For the sake of comparison, Horton threw only 34.1 innings in 2024 and 88.1 innings in 2023. It’s a big reason why the rookie has never reached the 100-pitch plateau in any start this season and why he’s also been held below 80 pitches in seven of his last nine appearances. That said, the limitations haven’t impacted Horton’s impressive results. The 24-year-old is in possession of a 0.93 ERA dating back to July 20. That’s six earned runs over 58.1 frames. Even if Horton can only throw five innings this evening, there’s a great chance they’ll be high quality.
I can not make the same claim about David Peterson. The left-hander has been one of the poster children for the Mets’ mind-numbing late-season collapse, as Peterson’s struggled to a 7.59 ERA over his past eight starts. That includes giving up six earned runs to the Padres last Wednesday and eight earned runs to the lowly Marlins towards the end of August. Chicago has hit LHPs well throughout 2025, sitting fourth in ISO (.179) and fifth in wRC+ (108) within the split. I see no reason why that trend won’t continue tonight.
Pittsburgh Pirates at Cincinnati Reds
Under 8.5 (-111)
It’s probably gone a little under the radar, but Brady Singer has been one of baseball’s most effective starters the past two months. That’s not hyperbole. That’s real. Dating back to July 27, Singer actually sports the third-lowest ERA among all qualified pitchers at 2.15. For context, that’s better than Paul Skenes (2.30), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2.31) and Tarik Skubal (2.59). Can some of that success be attributed to an unsustainable .232 opponent BABIP? Of course. However, Singer’s also produced a 26.8% strikeout rate within that same span of time. He’s missing bats more than he ever has in his career, and it’s paying dividends.
I would expect Singer to keep the good times rolling against a Pirates lineup that ranks 29th in MLB in ISO (.117), batting average (.210) and wRC+ (74) for the month of September. Honestly, despite making a push for the postseason, the Reds’ bats haven’t been much better lately, sitting 24th in OBP (.299) and 22nd in wRC+ (22) since the calendar flipped over from August.
They call it Great American “Small” Park for a reason, yet these two rosters aren’t really equipped to take full advantage of this offensive environment. So long as Johan Oviedo doesn’t completely implode, this should be a very low-scoring affair between two division rivals.
