Thursdays around the MLB are usually pretty light as teams travel to the sites of their respective weekend series. There are seven games scheduled for Thursday, May 9, and they start early, with two of the games having a first pitch at 1:10 p.m. ET. This doesn’t leave bettors much time to sift through the day’s player prop lines and matchups to find an advantage. With that in mind, here are our best MLB player prop bets for Thursday, May 9, with odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.
Teddy Ricketson’s 2024 MLB Player Prop record: 44-33-5
Wednesday recap (3-0): It came down to the wire for Jose Altuve, but he got into the hit column with an RBI single in the top of the ninth inning. Jordan Hicks got knocked around and allowed three earned runs over five innings but managed to strike out five, hitting on his alternate line. Houston Astros starter Spencer Arrighetti continued to struggle and allowed five earned runs on eight hits, easily clearing his alternate hits allowed line of 4+.
MLB player prop bets: Thursday, May 9
Pablo Lopez, Under 8.5 strikeouts (-170)
Lopez has a great matchup on Thursday, taking on the Seattle Mariners, who average 10 strikeouts per game. Still, 8.5 strikeouts is an unusually high line. Seattle has struck out more than eight times to a Minnesota starter just once so far over the first three games of this series. Lopez will be making his eighth start of the season and has yet to strike out more than eight in any game so far.
Jose Altuve, over 0.5 hits (-275)
Altuve came through on Wednesday with a hit, and I’m doubling down on Thursday. He has a much better matchup against New York Yankees starter Marcus Stroman. Altuve is 5-15 against the right-hander in his career, with a home run and two RBI. He is hitting .331 on the season and has at least one hit in seven of his last nine games.
Sonny Gray, 6+ strikeouts (-235)
Gray will start his sixth game of the season and his second against the Milwaukee Brewers. In the first, he pitched 6.1 innings and allowed two earned runs while striking out 12. Gray has struck out at least six hitters in four straight outings, and the Brew Crew average nine strikeouts per game.