For much of the home stretch, this Wild Card Round series looked like it was going to be a rematch of the 2024 National League Championship series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets. But after the Mets’ stunning late-season collapse, the Cincinnati Reds snuck into the postseason instead and will play three games on the road at Dodger Stadium, the first of which begins at 9:08 p.m. ET.
The last time the Dodgers played the Reds at home, the defending champions recorded a sweep, winning each game by three runs or more. But neither Snell nor Yoshinobu Yamamoto, tomorrow’s starter, took the mound, and while Greene started for Cincinnati, Game 2 starter Zack Littell did not. From a pitching perspective, then, it’ll basically be a whole new series.
Los Angeles is a -206 favorite for tonight’s contest on the Moneyline at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the over-under set for seven runs, and the Reds are +167. Below, I’ll take you through my three favorite player props out of the hundreds available.
Dodgers vs. Reds Prop Bets for Game 1
Blake Snell 7+ Strikeouts (-114)
After returning from a shoulder injury that cost him four months and derailed his first season with the Dodgers, Snell has been arguably the Los Angeles’ best pitcher despite Yamamoto allowing just seven hits and two runs in the entire month of September. That’s how good Snell has been; across his nine post-injury starts, he’s pitched 52.1 total innings and recorded a 2.41 ERA, walking 18 and striking out 68. Despite his two rough starts to open the season, Snell’s chase, walk, and strikeout rates all sit in the league’s top sextile. He has fanned seven or more batters in five of the nine starts, including four of his five at home.
He should have a good matchup against a Cincinnati team that limped to the finish line offensively, finishing with the second-worst OPS in September among the 12 teams that made the playoffs. Throughout the month, the Reds also struck out the 12th-most times league-wide and the fourth-most times among playoff teams. They also posted the fifth-worst OPS against lefties and the eighth-worst OPS on the road, and though they didn’t produce a notably high strikeout rate in either split, generally inept offense could keep Snell in the game longer and allow him to rack up strikeouts through volume. Cincinnati’s best player, Elly De La Cruz, has ranked in the NL’s top four in strikeouts in each of the past two seasons and is especially K-prone against southpaws.
Hunter Greene U1.5 Walks Allowed (+126)
Greene, too, missed some time in the middle of the season, going on the injured list with a groin strain in early June and returning in the middle of August. Since then, he’s made eight starts, posting a 2.81 ERA. Across that span, he’s walked just 12 total batters and issued one or fewer free passes in four different starts, although it should be noted that he allowed two in a 7-0 loss to the Dodgers in Los Angeles on August 25. His overall track record for the season is good — his 6.2% walk rate ranks in the 82nd percentile — so it feels like a toss-up, making +126 good value.
Of course, the Dodgers are among the walk kings of baseball, finishing second in walks for the fifth straight season, although the 580 that they drew in 2025 was their fewest in an 162-game season since 2016. They also demonstrated poor command of the strike zone over the last month of the season, drawing the 12th-fewest walks in September, and one of their most disciplined hitters, Will Smith, will only return in a pinch-hit capacity after fracturing his hand early in the month. Ben Rortvedt — who drew just four walks in 18 games with Los Angeles — will likely start behind the dish. Michael Conforto — and his 84th percentile walk rate — also did not make the Dodgers’ Wild Card roster.
Max Muncy or Shohei Ohtani – Either Player 1+ Home Runs (-101)
Last season, Ohtani set Los Angeles’ single-season franchise record when he clubbed 54 homers en route to his third MVP award. Somehow, he one-upped himself in 2025, slugging his 55th homer of the season in his 158th and final game to set a new franchise mark. He’s also a proven clutch performer, mashing three homers through the first nine games of the Dodgers’ 2024 playoff run before suffering a torn labrum in Game 2 of the World Series and struggling thereafter. Despite an injury-riddled season, Muncy hit two homers in his last seven games and has 13 homers in 62 career playoff games, including three each in Los Angeles’ World Series runs in 2018, 2020, and 2024.
The flame-throwing Greene rarely gave up hits, as his expected batting average sat in the 87th percentile and his whiff rate in the 90th percentile. That also meant that whenever batters made contact, they hit it hard: his barrel rate was in just the 26th percentile, his average exit velocity in the 19th percentile, his hard hit rate in the 15th percentile, and his ground ball rate in the 13th percentile. Combine that with the fact that the Dodgers have hit barrels at a top five clip, have led the league in fly ball percentage in each of the last five seasons, and play in the league’s fifth-most homer friendly park for left-handed batters, and the rationale is clear. He allowed two homers in his previous start at Dodger Stadium, one each to Mookie Betts and Andy Pages.
