Kevin Davies
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Yesterday was an exciting day of baseball! Both the Astros and Mets hit walk-off home runs in the bottom of the 9th to win, Bryan Woo and Gavin Stone were in a heated pitching duel, and the Diamondbacks continued their tear at the plate. Well, even more action is happening tonight, so let’s dive into my best MLB player prop bets for Tuesday, August 20, while you can also check out all of our MLB picks for today.
Cole Ragans (KC) to record a win (+135)
Available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing
The Royals lineup is on fire right now. Since August 1, the Royals rank 1st in batting average, 2nd in slugging percentage, 2nd in OPS, and 4th in wRC+. Bobby Witt Jr. is the star of the offense, but it’s not just him producing right now. Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez have been fantastic in the middle of the order, and the bottom half of the lineup has been extremely productive in the last few weeks.
That gives me confidence that they will score a few runs against Tyler Anderson, who has a 4.60 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in 5 starts since the All-Star break. Plus, Anderson allowed 3 runs and 7 hits against the Royals earlier in the season. The lefty will go up against Cole Ragans, who is 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA in three starts in August. He’s limited hitters to a .188 batting average with a 28% strikeout rate during that span, so I’m confident that the Royals will have the lead after both starters are out of the game. Ragans has picked up the win in 5 of his last 6 starts, so I’m taking him to win his 11th game of the season tonight at a fantastic price.
Lock in today’s MLB parlay picks at huge +1054 odds — we cashed a parlay yesterday at +475!
Robbie Ray (SF) 2+ walks (-110)
Available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing
The San Francisco rotation just got a lot stronger with Robbie Ray’s long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery. However, he’s been a roller coaster so far. His swing-and-miss stuff is back and better than ever since he’s throwing mid to high 90s with a wicked slider, but the problem has been locating. In 5 starts, Ray has allowed 6 home runs, 12 walks, 4 hit by pitches and 3 wild pitches. The hard-throwing lefty has allowed 2 walks or more in 4 of his 5 starts and 3 walks in 3 of his 5 starts.
Since he’s back to full strength and off of a pitch count, I’m expecting 2 walks from Ray in 5 or 6 innings seems extremely possible. He’s taking on a White Sox lineup that isn’t the most dangerous in the league by any means but can certainly work the count against Ray. That lefty will fill the count several times, so as long as the White Sox don’t bail him out with bad swings, Ray is going to walk a few batters.
