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MLB betting: Three props for Yankees-Red Sox on Tuesday

Postseason baseball has finally arrived. After a grueling 162-game regular season, the season comes down to one game for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The Yankees are -135 favorites to win the American League wild-card game and the total is set at 8 runs.

With the game being a standalone showdown competing against almost nothing else in the sports world, it's an ideal moment to get involved in the prop market. With the excitement of postseason baseball, BetMGM has hundreds of props available for this game.

Both teams to score in the first three innings

The Red Sox and Yankees both rank top 10 in wRC+ (a park-adjusted measure of offensive production). Even though the Yankees will be without leadoff hitter DJ LeMahieu and the Red Sox will be without slugger J.D. Martinez, both lineups are still dangerous from top to bottom.

Yankees' ace Gerrit Cole made three starts at Fenway Park this season. In those three starts, Cole went 16 innings, giving up 19 hits, 7 walks and 11 earned runs. Those numbers are a far cry from the numbers Cole posted against other teams in other ballparks this season.

Additionally, Cole left his start on Sept. 7 with a hamstring injury. In four starts since then, he has given up 16 earned runs over 22 1/3 innings. There's valid reason for concern with the Yankees' ace.

CLEVELAND, OHIO - AUGUST 28: Nathan Eovaldi #17 of the Boston Red Sox pitches in the first inning during their game against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on August 28, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

On the other side, Nathan Eovaldi had a solid season for the Red Sox, but he's not exactly a name that will scare teams. In his last start against the Yankees, Eovaldi gave up 7 runs in 2 2/3 innings.

You can bet on both teams to score in the first three innings at +160. I think this is great value for two of the league's better offenses, especially with Cole clearly not on top of his game.

Nathan Eovaldi

Nathan Eovaldi was the best Red Sox pitcher throughout the 2021 season, and that's why he's getting the start in this game. He posted a solid 3.75 ERA while striking out 195 batters in 182 1/3 innings pitched for Boston.

Eovaldi actually made six starts against the Yankees this season, which gives us a bit of a sample size to go off of. His most recent start was mentioned above, and it wasn't good. However, in his first 5 starts against the Yankees, Eovaldi was quite good. In those 5 starts, Eovaldi went 31 1/3 innings, giving up just 7 runs, good for an ERA just over two.

In those first five starts, Eovaldi struck out at least six Yankees in each game. It's not surprising as Eovaldi struck out over a batter per inning during the regular season and the Yankees struck out the sixth-most of all MLB teams.

As long as Eovaldi doesn't get beaten up like he did in his last start against New York, I like his chances of going over 5.5 strikeouts on Tuesday night.

Rafael Devers

Chicks dig the long ball. We know home runs and strikeouts rule the day in the current version of MLB baseball. If you're looking to bet on someone to hit a dinger in the wild-card game, I'd look toward Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers.

Devers has taken Gerrit Cole deep three times this season. He's batting just .211 against the Yankees ace, but three of his four hits have cleared the outfield wall. Aces are prone to giving up solo home runs as the main source of scoring against them since it's so hard to string together good at-bats.

Devers hit 38 home runs this season, which ranks inside the top 10 across all of baseball. If Devers can't get to Cole, he's also hit home runs against Nestor Cortes, Michael King and Aroldis Chapman in his career. All three are on the Yankees' roster for the game and could theoretically be available out of the bullpen.

Devers is currently at +350 to hit a home run on Tuesday night.

Stats from FanGraphs and MLB.com