With 16 teams taking the field under the lights on Saturday night across Major League Baseball, there are some great matchups to check out all across the scoreboard. While there are plenty of fun home run props and DFS fantasy baseball contests on the board, it’s also a great night to explore some of the many options offered for starting pitcher prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook. In this post, you can find my top plays from Pirates SP Braxton Ashcraft, Rangers SP Jack Leiter and Dodgers SP Blake Snell.

In almost every MLB contest, starting pitching is key to deciding how the matchup will play out. DraftKings Sportsbook offers plenty of different varieties of SP prop bets, so lets survey the field and find some fun ones to target this Saturday night.

Top MLB SP Props

Braxton Ashcraft o4.5 Strikeouts Thrown (-144)

The Pirates are in San Francisco looking to continue their strong start on the road. They dropped the series opener on Friday after taking two of three from the Diamondbacks in Arizona. On Saturday, they’ll give the ball to Braxton Ashcraft for his eighth start of the season.

The 26-year-old righty has been very solid this season, allowing two runs or fewer in all but one of his seven outings and compiling a 3.02 ERA, a 2.99 FIP, 1.08 WHIP, and just a 35.2% hard-hit rate. Ashcraft should be able to keep the Giants in check, since they score the fewest runs in the majors, but the odds on him allowing two runs or fewer are not very favorable at -190.

I’d rather attack this very gettable strikeout prop, since Ashcraft has at least five strikeouts in each of his last six games. He had six strikeouts in his last start against the Reds while pitching into the eighth inning. Even when he gave up six runs to the Cardinals in his previous start, he had seven strikeouts despite not get through the fifth inning.

If you want to be more aggressive, chasing this to 6+ at +141 is a strong play as well, but the Giants strikeout numbers have been slightly better than league average, so for parlays and safer plays, I’m sticking with the typical over/under play for Ashcraft in my starting pitcher prop bets for Saturday night.

Jack Leiter o4.5 hits allowed (-119)

Leiter has been inconsistent this season for the Rangers, showing signs of progress and dominance in some starts but also getting hit around at times. On Saturday night at home, he has the tough task of facing the red-hot Cubs, who have won 10 straight games and took the series opener, 7-1.

The Cubs had nine hits in their win, and they have averaged 8.8 hits per game on the season. Leiter has allowed at least five hits in each of his last five starts and in six of his seven outings overall this season.

Even in games where he’s giving up runs, the team tends to ride him deep into the game, which should allow the Cubs to get their bats going again on Saturday, pushing him over this hits allowed prop as one of my favorite starting pitcher prop bets on the board.

Blake Snell u4.5 strikeouts (+113)

In one of the most exciting starting pitcher matchups to watch this Saturday night, Blake Snell will be making his first start of the season for the Dodgers against Spencer Strider for the Braves. Both Cy Young winners have elite upside but have been battling injuries for the last few seasons.

Snell was originally slated for another rehab start after throwing 38 pitches for the low-A Ontario Tower Buzzers in his last rehab start. After Tyler Glasnow’s back injury landed him on the IL, though, the plan changed, and he’s going to jump right back to the majors. He’ll likely be on a severe pitch count, and probably won’t throw more than around 50 pitches.

He did have a great strikeout rate last season with a 28.3% K% for 72 strikeouts in 61 1/3 innings. While that’s still a strong mark, it was actually his first season under 30% K% since 2017. Snell still has great stuff, but it may not be quite as elite as during his peak.

He’s also in a tough matchup against the Braves, even though they do lean left-handed. The Braves are in the bottom-third of the MLB in K% overall and K% against lefties, and with such a short outing likely on Saturday, Snell has a great chance of coming in under this number and delivering a win for this plus-money prop.

If you want to be more aggressive, you can combine these three plays into a nice parlay at +524, or you can use them in a round-robin format or combine them with other picks and plays that you like.