Five players hit 2+ home runs last night for the third time this season, including the leading MVP candidates in the American and National Leagues, Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuña Jr.
Ohtani leads all of baseball with 28 long balls, while Acuña is second in the majors in batting average, OPS, and stolen bases. Thirty-two players have multi-home run games at the halfway point of the season, and three have four or more multi-homer games in 2023.
Tuesday’s prop plays went 2-1 thanks to quiet nights from Elly de la Cruz and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., while Miami’s Sandy Alcantara made it to five strikeouts in seven innings against Boston to cost us the sweep.
We’re on a 5-2 run over the last two prop cards and look to make that a trend by backing it up with another successful batch on Wednesday. Today’s best bets are presented by PrizePicks.
Matt Olson OVER 1.5 Total Bases
The second half of June has been a productive time for Olson, and the slugger gets a nice matchup today against Kenta Maeda. Olson’s hit seven home runs since June 15, added three doubles, and knocked in 15 RBI over 11 games.
He’s struggled against Twins pitching to start this series, going 1-for-8 with three strikeouts in the first two games, but he has some good history against Maeda.
In two previous meetings spanning four at-bats, Olson is 3-for-4 with two home runs and a double against the veteran righty as a member of the A’s. Today is his first crack against Maeda as a Brave, and we’ll wager on Olson to maintain his solid form.
Mitch Keller OVER 5.5 Strikeouts
Keller has been a steady presence atop the Pirates rotation this season, whether the team has been playing well or not.
He’s gone at least into the sixth inning in 15 straight starts and had a stretch of seven appearances from late April through May where he threw 45 innings, posted a 5-1 record, and struck out 63 batters.
He’s cooled off since then in June, managing a 4.06 ERA and striking out 20 batters across four starts. Against a San Diego team near league-average in K-rate, we’ll play on Keller to do his job tonight.
Teoscar Hernández OVER 1.5 Total Bases
It’s been a difficult season for Hernández relative to his last few years in Toronto as he’s transitioned to being a prized offseason acquisition in Seattle. He entered June with a .665 OPS and had just seven extra-base hits in all of May during 113 plate appearances.
Since then, he’s nearly doubled his walk rate month over month, is slugging .590 in 92 June plate appearances, and has an OPS of .967 this month despite the Mariners’ struggles as a team.
The M’s face Washington’s Patrick Corbin on Wednesday, another positive indicator for Hernández in 2023. He’s slashing .288/.293/.575 against lefties on the season compared to a .242/.301/.410 line when facing right-handed pitching. Six of his 15 homers have come on just 75 plate appearances against Southpaws.
That 8% round-tripper rate is more than double his output versus righties (3.6%). We’ll wager on Hernández to get at least one extra-base hit against Corbin and the Nationals this afternoon.
