After a barren day of baseball on Monday, the Majors are back and ready to kick off the final week of the regular season with a 16-game slate on Tuesday, September 26. That means plenty of action, and just as importantly, plenty of options to choose from for those looking for profitable player props tonight. Here are three of our favorite plays of the day, with odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.
MLB player prop bets: Tuesday, September 26
Hunter Greene, over 17.5 outs recorded (+100)
Greene has been sensational so far in September, with a 1.93 ERA this month and a whopping 29 Ks over 18.2 innings this month. He’s cleared this number in two of his last three starts, with the lone holdout being a 5.2-inning effort against the Mets in which he was pulled one out short of clearing this total despite allowing three runs on just four hits. The Reds flamethrower gets a very cushy matchup on Tuesday night, squaring off against a Guardians unit that’s slugging just .377 against right-handed pitching since September 1. Cleveland puts the ball in play as much as any team in baseball, meaning Greene isn’t likely to run up his pitch count with long at-bats — and given the state of Cincy’s pitching staff right now, they more or less have to let him go as long as he can as they try to get back into the NL Wild Card race.
Kevin Gausman, over 7.5 strikeouts (-120)
We’ll keep going back to this well until it dries up, which doesn’t seem likely any time soon. Gausman is one of the premier strikeout artists in baseball, and he’s been particularly lethal against the Yankees: In his three starts against New York this season, the Blue Jays ace has racked up double-digit Ks, including 10 in six shutout innings in the Bronx last week. The current iteration of this Yankees lineup is just abysmal against right-handed pitching, and has been for a while — their 27.1% K rate against righties since August 1 is second only to the Angels, who have barely qualified as a Major League roster. They haven’t figured out Gausman yet, and there’s no reason to think they suddenly will tonight.
Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ozzie Albies, over 1.5 total bases (+250)
The Cubs likely wouldn’t be holding on to a playoff spot right now if it weren’t for Justin Steele’s effort in the second half, but the lefty has looked like he’s wearing down of late, allowing 12 runs on 15 hits over nine innings across his last two starts. His stuff and his velocity are both down a bit, which is a bad time to be facing the Braves’ Death Star of an offense — especially considering that Atlanta touched Steele up for four runs on eight hits and four walks in 5.1 innings at Wrigley Field in early August. Acuna Jr. (1.056 OPS in his last 10 games) and Albies (1.062) have both been scorching hot of late, and both have crushed lefties all year long. With such favorable odds, I like both of them to have a big night against a fading pitcher as the Braves look to wrap up the No. 1 seed in the NL playoffs.