The Phillies became the latest team to clinch their division last night, their first NL East title in 13 years.
The Yankees will look to join them in clinching the AL East tonight against the Orioles, while the Dodgers and Padres will begin a three-game set that will likely decide the NL West.
I'll be backing a pair of MVPs in Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.
However, first, let's begin with today's MLB player props in the nation's capital, where Cole Ragans and the Royals visit the Nationals.
Alex Hinton's MLB Player Props for Tuesday
- Cole Ragans Over 6.5 Strikeouts (+100, FanDuel)
- Aaron Judge Over 1.5 Total Bases (+120, DraftKings)
- Shohei Ohtani Over 1.5 Total Bases (+115, DraftKings)
MLB player prop bets and MLB prop bets are becoming increasingly popular among bettors. These wagers focus on individual player performances, such as runs, home runs and strikeouts, adding excitement by allowing bettors to target specific player statistics rather than just game outcomes.
Royals vs Nationals Player Props: Why to Back Ragans
The Kansas City Royals appeared to be well on their way to clinching a postseason berth just a few weeks ago. However, they've lost seven straight games and eight of their last 10 games.
Tonight, they'll hand the ball to Ragans to right the ship.
Ragans comes into this start ranking fourth in the MLB with 217 strikeouts in 180 1/3 innings. He's punched out seven batters or more in seven of his last 10 starts.
From a strikeouts perspective, he has a difficult matchup tonight, considering the Nationals are 26th in the MLB in strikeouts this season. However, they've scored one run or less in five of their last seven games.
If Ragans shuts down the Nationals, he'll likely work deep into this game, which will give him more opportunities to record outs via strikeouts. When going six innings or more, Ragans has struck out seven batters or more in 16-of-22 starts this season.
Ragans is -196 for over 17.5 outs recorded tonight, so he's expected to make another lengthy outing.
Ragans has averaged over a strikeout per inning since joining the Royals, and that should help him to get to seven tonight.
If he exceeds that, I also like him up to nine strikeouts at +390 on FanDuel.
Pick: Cole Ragans Over 6.5 Strikeouts (+100)
Orioles vs Yankees Player Props: Trust Judge's Past Success
By his standards, September has been a quiet month for Judge. However, he still has five doubles, four home runs and a .947 OPS.
Two of those home runs have come in the last two days, and he still leads the MLB with 55 dingers on the season. Judge returns home tonight, where he's hitting .331 with a 1.209 OPS, including 28 of his homers.
With that in mind, I believe there's actually value on Judge. On some nights, Judge is shorter than +200 to hit a home run, but he's +275 on DraftKings for a four-bagger tonight.
Even his total bases are plus odds tonight; they're as high as -140 some nights.
All of this comes against a pitcher that Judge has owned. In 13 at-bats against Dean Kremer, Judge has four hits, and three of them have been home runs. Kremer allowed two home runs in his last start, and he's allowed three runs or more in five of his last nine starts.
Judge has four multi-hit games in his last 10 outings, with three doubles and four home runs in that span. As a result, he's hit this line in six of his last 10 games.
Considering the success he's had against Kremer, I expect that trend to continue tonight.
Pick: Aaron Judge Over 1.5 Total Bases (+120)
Padres vs Dodgers Player Props: Faith in This Superstar
Right on Judge's heels for the MLB home run lead is Ohtani, who has 53 on the year. Ohtani has homered in four of his last six games, with six in that stretch.
Most notably was his 6-for-6, three-homer game in Miami, when he also became the first player with 50 home runs and stolen bases in the same season.
Since then, Ohtani is 14-for-18 (.778) with two doubles and five home runs.
With the success that he's had against Michael King, his hot streak may continue tonight. Ohtani is 5-for-12 (.417) with a double and three home runs against King in his career.
He has 70 of his 94 extra-base hits against right-handers this season.
Meanwhile, King is poised for his first 200-strikeout season of his career, but he's allowed 13 doubles and nine home runs to left-handed hitters. He's also allowed 10 runs (seven earned) with five home runs in 15 1/3 innings against the Dodgers this season.
Like Judge, Ohtani has three home runs off tonight's starting pitcher, and he's hit this line in six of his last 10 games, as well.
If you want to parlay them both, they're +373 for two total bases and +1400 for home runs on DraftKings tonight.
Pick: Shohei Ohtani Over 1.5 Total Bases (+115)
