The MLB season started with a 3-0 day for us. Today, nearly every team is in action, with 14 games, and the fun begins at 2:10 p.m. ET.
Ronald Acuna Jr. will look to shake off his hitless Sunday against the Chicago White Sox. Triston McKenzie will make his first start of the year after suffering through injury in 2023. And James Paxton will look to strike out at least five San Francisco Giants tonight.
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for Monday, April 1st's MLB action.
The MLB season started with a 3-0 day for us. Today, nearly every team is in action, with 14 games, and the fun begins at 2:10 p.m. ET.
Ronald Acuna Jr. will look to shake off his hitless Sunday against the Chicago White Sox. Triston McKenzie will make his first start of the year after suffering through injury in 2023. And James Paxton will look to strike out at least five San Francisco Giants tonight.
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for Monday, April 1st's MLB action.
Monday’s Best MLB PrizePicks Player Predictions
This Season: 3-0
After a phenomenal 2022, McKenzie made only four starts in 2023. He pitched a total of 16.0 innings, never going over 5.0. The Cleveland Guardians believe he is back from his UCL sprain. However, with teams’ cautiousness regarding pitchers, McKenzie likely won't go more than 5.0 tonight.
McKenzie can strike out many batters, but on a pitch count and against a team he has just average numbers versus, there's no reason to expect him to ring up over six batters. In one of his starts last season, he struck out 10, but that performance came against the Minnesota Twins, the most strikeout-prone team in the league.
The Giants struck out 36 times in their four-game series against the San Diego Padres. Tonight, they'll face Paxton, a pitcher who always seems to have around five strikeouts. Last season, he made 19 starts and finished with 101 strikeouts. That's an average of 5.3 per start.
Paxton has a decent history against the Giants' lineup, striking out 19 batters in 51 at-bats. However, 11 of those strikeouts belong to Matt Champman, someone Paxton will face two or three times at most. Yet, Paxton averaged just over 5.0 innings per start last season, and against this lineup, there's no reason to think he won't hit that number tonight. If he does, he'll get at least one strikeout in every inning.
On Sunday, Acuna Jr. went 0-3, recording his first hitless game of the season. In his first two games, he was a combined 5-9. Tonight, he faces the Chicago Whtie Sox, a pitching staff that he is batting .289 off of.
Acuna Jr. is 1-2 in his career against Chicago starter Chris Flexen. Without much history between the two, this play comes down to who you think will get the better of who. In 2023, Acuna batted .337. Flexen allowed 133 hits in 102.1 innings. Go with the hitter in this matchup.
Make sure to check out our other best bets for Monday:
Phil Wood is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Phil, check out his archive and follow him @Phil_Wood_Jr.
