Will Brandon Pfaadt strike out more than six Pittsburgh Pirates after striking out just four of them one week ago? Will Yusei Kikuchi be successful against the Tampa Bay Rays? And can George Springer stay hot against the New York Yankees?
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for Friday, August 2nd.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily MLB projections >>
Will Brandon Pfaadt strike out more than six Pittsburgh Pirates after striking out just four of them one week ago? Will Yusei Kikuchi be successful against the Tampa Bay Rays? And can George Springer stay hot against the New York Yankees?
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for Friday, August 2nd.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily MLB projections >>
Friday’s Best MLB PrizePicks Player Predictions
MLB PrizePicks Record This Season: 80-59-4
Brandon Pfaadt faced the Pirates last week and only struck out four batters. It was a disappointing number, especially since he went 6.0 innings against a team with the fifth-most strikeouts in the league. Pirates hitters looked comfortable against him, scoring five runs and recording seven hits in the game.
Pfaadt has had some great performances this season, but he has been very inconsistent when it comes to striking out batters. He has seven games with seven or more strikeouts and eight with four or fewer. The Pirates have struggled to make contact this season but we're backing the hitters tonight after Pfaadt's performance on July 27.
Yusei Kikuchi faced the Rays earlier this season and struck out just four batters in 4.1 innings. Since then, the Rays have struck out the seventh-most times in the league. Kikuchi has compiled 126 strikeouts in 111.1 innings. That makes this a very good matchup for Kikuchi as long as he can pitch more than 5.0 innings.
Kikuchi has struck out at least seven batters in four of his last eight starts. During this stretch, he has alternated between striking more and less than seven batters. When he's been off, he's still managed to strike out at least five batters. When he's been on, he's been incredible, as shown by his 13-strikeout performance against the San Francisco Giants. Because of how much the Rays strike out, Kikuchi won't even have to be at his best to hit this over.
George Springer is 4-for-16 against Marcus Stroman in his career, and two of those four hits were doubles. While Springer is batting just .229 this season, he has hit safely in five of his last six games. In two of those games, he has recorded multiple hits.
Stroman has allowed 106 hits in 113.2 innings. In his last start, he allowed nine hits and three earned runs in just 3.1 innings. He's allowed at least three earned runs in five of his last seven starts. He's allowed at least five hits in five consecutive games. With how hot Springer has been and how easily teams have hit against Stroman lately, he should be able to top this number.
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.
