Ryan Pepiot will look to lead his Tampa Bay Rays to victory against the Boston Red Sox, but can he keep one of the highest-scoring teams in the league off the scoreboard and pitch deep into the game?
Out west, Landon Knack will look to rebound from a rough start when his Los Angeles Dodgers battle the Colorado Rockies. Finally, can Kyle Schwarber break out of his slump against the San Francisco Giants?
Here are the best MLB PrizePicks player predictions for Tuesday, April 15th.
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Ryan Pepiot will look to lead his Tampa Bay Rays to victory against the Boston Red Sox, but can he keep one of the highest-scoring teams in the league off the scoreboard and pitch deep into the game?
Out west, Landon Knack will look to rebound from a rough start when his Los Angeles Dodgers battle the Colorado Rockies. Finally, can Kyle Schwarber break out of his slump against the San Francisco Giants?
Here are the best MLB PrizePicks player predictions for Tuesday, April 15th.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily MLB projections >>
Tuesday’s Best MLB PrizePicks Player Predictions
This Season: 8-12-1
Ryan Pepiot takes on the Red Sox, a team that has had an up-and-down start to the year. They lead the league in strikeouts with 179 through 18 games, but they're also 10th in the league in runs scored and batting average. Therefore, even though Pepiot may have an advantage in ringing up batters tonight, I expect the Red Sox to chase him before he gets through six innings.
Pepiot has faced the Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Angels this season. Only once has he pitched at least six innings, and he's never pitched more than that. In his last two starts, he's given up a combined four home runs, pitching just five innings in each game despite throwing at least 88 pitches.
Pepiot's numbers against the Red Sox are solid, as he's allowing a batting average of just .226 to the current lineup. However, the Red Sox are scoring when the opportunity presents itself, and tonight will be no different.
The Rockies are just 3-13. They've struck out 169 times this season. However, I'm taking Landon Knack to go for less than his listed strikeout total against them. Even though the Rockies have scored just 43 runs, the fewest in the league by a significant margin, I expect Knack to leave this game early because that seems to be what the Dodgers have in store for him this season.
In two appearances, Knack has pitched 4.1 innings, never completing more than 2.1 innings in a single game. In his last appearance, he was pulled for allowing five earned runs in just 2.1 innings. Even though Knack should have more success tonight, looking at what he did last season makes it hard to trust him to reach this number.
Knack struck out 69 batters in 69 innings, but he never pitched more than six innings. He'll need to go at least five innings tonight to hit the more than, but that's something he hasn't done since September 18th of last season. The Rockies’ lineup isn't very good, but Knack needs to prove he can get through the early part of a game before he can be trusted.
Kyle Schwarber is batting .259 with six home runs this season, but he's struggled over the last week. He's gone hitless in back-to-back games, and he's only recorded more than one hit in one of his last 14 games. He faces Justin Verlander today. While that may deter some bettors from backing him, Verlander's name doesn't mean what it used to.
The 42-year-old has allowed 10 earned runs in 13 innings this season, and he's given up two home runs thus far. That could spell trouble against a powerful hitter like Schwarber. While Schwarber is just 1-for-7 in his career against Verlander, he is batting .256 against the current Giants' pitching staff, so he could pick up his hit against the bullpen. The fact that this number is at 0.5 is too good to pass up, even with Schwarber slumping.
Make sure to check out our other best bets for Tuesday:
Phil Wood is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Phil, check out his archive and follow him @Phil_Wood_Jr.
