Best MLB Player Props For Wednesday (July 5)

We have made it to the middle of the week (hopefully with all fingers still intact) and the baseball schedule roars on with another full 15-game slate.

All but one of those games take place this evening, here are our four favorite player prop bets of the night as we inch closer to the All-Star break.

Ronald Acuna Jr. OVER 2.5 Hits + Runs + RBI’s

The Atlanta Braves’ nine-game winning streak finally came to an end last night with the Guardians’ extra-innings win.

However, Ronald Acuna Jr. remained the hottest player in the National League and extended his hitting streak to an MLB-best 15 games.

Tonight, the best hitter in the NL during the first half of the MLB season gets a crack at Cleveland’s Cal Quantrill.

Quantrill is making his second start since coming off the injured list last Friday, and if his last three outings are any indication of what he could be in store for tonight, he’s likely in for a very long evening.

The Braves’ offense is simply on another planet over the last 30 days, with a team wRC+ of 148 – a full 24 points higher than second-ranked Texas.

Ronald Acuna has been one of the main reasons for the Braves’ explosion on offense during that same time frame.

Over Acuna’s last 30 days, he has a gaudy .364 batting average, 1.114 OPS, .309 ISO, and .468 wOBA.

He’s also been an absolute terror on the base paths, racking up 17 stolen bases over the last 30 days to bring his total to 41 stolen bases – on the season.

Acuna became the first player EVER to have 20+ home runs, 40+ steals and 50+ RBI before the All-Star break, and he accomplished this feat on July 3rd.

As mentioned earlier, Cal Quantrill faces a steep challenge tonight against the Braves’ offense, and this could not be a juicier matchup for Acuna if you asked for one.

Quantrill has given up 20 earned runs in his last three starts where he combined to pitch only 11 ⅔ of an inning.

If he had thrown enough innings this season to qualify, he would have the lowest strikeout percentage in MLB with a 12.3% strikeout rate.

Not great Bob.

The Braves have also absolutely devoured right-handed pitching this season, but especially in June where they lead MLB in every single noteworthy statistic.

Acuna has topped 2.5 Hits + Runs + RBI’s in seven of his last 10 games and we see no reason why he won’t do that again tonight.

Best Odds: DraftKings (-120)

Lane Thomas OVER 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBI

The Nationals enter tonight’s game against the Reds with the second-worst record in the National League, but there has been one bright spot for the team: Lane Thomas.

Thomas has been outstanding for the rebuilding Nats this season, especially over the last month.

While we were raving about Ronald Acuna in the above passage, Lane Thomas isn’t far off the performance of the NL MVP favorite.

Thomas is batting .349 with a 1.013 OPS, .294 ISO, and .423 wOBA over his last 30 days and has 6 HR’s and 18 RBI during this stretch.

Despite hitting better against lefties than right-handed pitchers, Thomas has a favorable matchup tonight at home when he gets to go against Reds’ SP Graham Ashcraft.

Ashcraft has pitched slightly better away from the hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, but he’s still ripe for the picking on the road with an ERA just under 5 and a 1-1 record in six road starts this season.

Righties have also hit the ball better off Ashcraft, another metric that favors the red-hot Thomas tonight.

Tonight, we are backing Lane Thomas to clear 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBI, a number he’s cleared in nine of his last 10 games and in 22 of his last 30 games overall, including both games so far in this series.

There’s a bit of juice involved in this line, but Thomas has been too good of late not to take a nibble on a line he can clear in a hurry.

Best Odds: DraftKings (-150)

Eduardo Rodriguez OVER 4.5 Strikeouts

One cardinal rule of betting on baseball is..

“Whenever you can fade the Oakland Athletics, you have to do so..”

That’s exactly what we are doing tonight, and we don’t mind at all that we’re backing a player from the 37-win Tigers to do so.

However, this isn’t any ordinary Detroit Tiger.

This is Tigers’ ace Eduardo Rodriguez, who is making his return from the injured list tonight and being given a very low strikeout total of 4.5 against one of the worst lineups in baseball.

The A’s managed to make Domingo German look like Randy Johnson in his prime a week ago, and today face Detroit’s hard throwing LHP.

Oakland is the only team in MLB to have struck out over 800 times so far this season and dating back to June 1st they have the majors worst strikeout rate (28.8%) against left-handed pitching.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez cleared 4.5 strikeouts in his last eight starts before landing on the injured list with a finger injury, but all signs lead to Rodriguez picking up where he left off a month ago.

Against any other team in baseball, we probably are a bit hesitant on taking a strikeout prop until we see him back in action, but the A’s are a different kind of terrible and should be faded accordingly.

Best Odds: FanDuel (-110)

Lance Lynn OVER 2.5 Earned Runs Allowed

While the 36-year-old veteran pitcher has shown he can still strikeout batters with the best of them, he has also surrendered plenty of runs in his 13 games on the mound this season.

Lynn enters tonight’s contest against Toronto with a 6.47 ERA, a number that balloons to over 7 when he pitches at home.

The Blue Jays also matchup very well against the White Sox pitcher, as they rank 11th in MLB against RHP and tend to fare better against pitchers that give up a lot of fly balls, as Lynn does in bunches.

Lynn has given up at least 3 ER in his last six starts and in 13 of his 17 starts this season and we fully expect him to do that once again tonight.

Best Odds: BetMGM (-155)