Don’t look now, but the Guardians are suddenly red-hot, having won four contests in a row after a 7-3 victory in Game 1 of the ALCS. The cherry on top? Cleveland won on Monday without having to use Parker Messick or Gavin Williams, which gives the club a massive advantage going forward.
Will the Guardians take a 2-0 series lead on Tuesday? Or will the Rays be able to even things up?
Let’s dive in and find a couple of props bets for Game 2 on the DraftKings Sportsbook.
Guardians at Rays Best Prop Bets
Parker Messick Over 14.5 Outs Recorded (-133)
Messick was unable to pitch five innings in either of his starts in the ALDS. In fact, in Game 4, the rookie didn’t even make it out of the third inning, as walks were a massive issue. With that said, I’m willing to give Messick the benefit of the doubt and trust the larger sample of his 2026 campaign. Remember, this is the same guy who pitched to a 2.56 ERA during the regular season — the sixth-lowest qualified mark in baseball. He’s the same guy who went five frames in 30 of his 32 outings, with one of those two failures a planned early exit coming in the final weekend of September.
It’s possible the White Sox had just seen a little too much of Messick. Four starts during the regular season, plus another two in the playoffs. That’s some real familiarity. Conversely, Game 2 will be just the third time that the Rays will have seen 25-year-old. In the two prior matchups, Messick allowed only two earned runs and nine hits over a combined 13.1 innings. This lines up with the Rays’ overarching offensive issues with LHPs in 2026. Against southpaws, Tampa ranked 27th in wOBA (.300) and dead-last in ISO (.116). So long as Messick can limit the free passes and keep the Rays from running amok on the base paths, he should be set up for his best performance of these playoffs.
Chase DeLauter 2+ Hits + Runs + RBI (+108)
DeLauter’s rookie season has been a little lost in the shuffle of an exceedingly strong class — look no further than the aforementioned Messick — but there’s a real case to be made that the outfielder is the Guardians’ top bat. DeLauter finished the regular season with an 88th percentile expected batting average (.277) and a 131 wRC+ over 559 plate appearances. He was even more impressive when you isolate his stats from after the All-Star break, as DeLauter slashed .301/.389/.469 with a .376 wOBA.
Things haven’t slowed down in the postseason, either. DeLauter’s 8-for-24 (.333) with a 151 wRC+, and he’s managed to exceed this prop in four of his last five games. It helps when you’ve yet to strike out in any of your 27 playoff plate appearances, and you’ve got a 50.0% hard hit rate on your batted ball events. In layman’s terms, DeLauter is “seeing the ball well” at the moment, and I’d expect his success to continue in an opposite-hand matchup with Freddy Peralta in Game 2.
