After a dominant Game 1 win to start the NL Wild Card last night, the Los Angeles Dodgers come out looking to end the series and punch their ticket to the next round on Wednesday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto takes the mound against the Cincinnati Reds looking to end the visitors’ season with a strong performance. He enters this game hot, so can bettors find value in his prop bet lines?
Here’s the best Yoshinobu Yamamoto prop bet on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Best Yoshinobu Yamamoto prop bet for NL Wild Card Game 2
Following an impressive first season in the MLB during the 2024 campaign, Yoshinobu Yamamoto cemented his place among pro baseball’s top stars in 2025. Over the course of 173.1 innings across 30 starts, the Japanese hurler logged a 2.49 ERA and 0.99 WHIP which ranked fourth and sixth-best among all qualified pitchers. Not only that, but his 201 strikeouts also tied for 11th among the same sample. With a 29.4% K% in the 89th percentile, he proved he can cut batters down at will.
Yamamoto enters his first start of the MLB Postseason on a serious hot streak. Over his last seven starts of the regular season, he tallied a 1.53 ERA and 0.72 WHIP, both absolutely miniscule marks, also striking out 56 hitters across 47 innings of work. He allowed one or fewer earned runs in each of his last five starts dating back to August 31, and hasn’t allowed more than four hits since August 11. Clearly, he’s found his form at the right time.
There’s a couple of angles to attack Yamamoto’s prop bets from tonight. Over 7.5 strikeouts holds some appeal at +118 odds since he’s gone over that mark in 15 of 30 starts this year, a hit rate of exactly 50%. That’s not bad for plus value by any means, and the Reds struck out at the 13th-highest rate with a 22.6% K% at the plate over the full season’s sample. Over the last two weeks in particular, that mark increases to 25.4%, the 10th-highest of any team. If it means anything, Blake Snell just pitched seven innings last night with nine strikeouts, so we’ve just seen the batting order go down swinging plenty to start the series too.
For a safer pick with less value, consider taking Yamamoto to record over 17.5 outs. He went over this line in 18 of 30 games this season and recorded 21 in his last outing against the Reds back in June. If he stays locked in as he has over the last few weeks, there’s a great shot this one hits. Plus, Snell recorded 21 outs himself last night and the Dodgers may let Yamamoto stay in the game a little longer if he’s dealing since the team’s bullpen played so poorly to start the series. This over is available at -147 odds, but I’m taking the strikeouts prop instead with a sprinkle on both as a +170 parlay.
