Dean Kremer has already faced the Kansas City Royals this season. He struck out five in that game. Will he strike out the same amount or more tonight? Elsewhere, MacKenzie Gore looks to strike out six or more batters for the fourth consecutive game when he faces the Houston Astros. Harrison Bader looks to continue his hot hitting against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Here are the best PrizePicks player predictions for Friday, April 19th's MLB games.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily MLB projections >>
Dean Kremer has already faced the Kansas City Royals this season. He struck out five in that game. Will he strike out the same amount or more tonight? Elsewhere, MacKenzie Gore looks to strike out six or more batters for the fourth consecutive game when he faces the Houston Astros. Harrison Bader looks to continue his hot hitting against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Here are the best PrizePicks player predictions for Friday, April 19th's MLB games.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily MLB projections >>
Friday’s Best MLB PrizePicks Player Predictions
This Season: 13-11-1
On April 1st, Dean Kremer struck out five Royals in the Baltimore Orioles' 6-4 win. He pitched 5.1 innings and gave up just three hits and three earned runs. But will that performance be replicated tonight? We don’t think so.
The Royals have scored 92 runs this season, tied for the 11th-most in the league. They hit two home runs off Kremer in the first meeting. With these two things in mind, they could chase Kremer early if they can get good swings on some of his pitches. Plus, the Royals rank 25th in strikeouts this season. Kremer doesn't have great career strikeout numbers against them. With all of this in mind, the first meeting feels like a fluke. Tonight, he will strike out four or fewer.
MacKenzie Gore has three starts this season. He's struck out at least six batters in each appearance. In his most recent, he struck out 11 Oakland A's in 5.0 innings of work. While his numbers are great, all three of his starts have been against teams that rank in the top 12 in the league in total strikeouts. Two of his six starts were against teams in the top six.
The Astros are the best contact team in baseball. They have struck out only 134 times in 20 games, the lowest strikeout rate in the league. Their lineup has two strikeouts in 16 at-bats against Gore. For Gore to go over this line he will need to pitch more than 6.0 innings. He has yet to do that this season.
Harrison Bader is batting .288 this season, tied for 54th-best in the MLB. He has hit safely in six of his last seven games and nine of his last 11. Additionally, Bader has four multi-hit games this season. He's only failed to hit safely in four of his 15 games.
Tonight, he faces Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the first time in his career. While Yamamoto has struck out 21 batters in 16 innings, he also has a WHIP of 1.06. He's had two great starts where he went five innings without allowing a single run. But in his other two starts, he's allowed eight earned runs in just 6.0 innings. Bader is a very hot hitter right now. Look for him to have the advantage tonight, even if he doesn't get his first hit until he faces the Dodgers' bullpen.
Make sure to check out our other best bets for Friday:
Phil Wood is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Phil, check out his archive and follow him @Phil_Wood_Jr.
