Griffin Wong details his picks for DraftKings MLB Grand Slam Payout promotion on tonight’s slate.
What’s the only thing better than a three-run homer?
A grand slam.
In addition to that play being among the most exciting in sports, it can also be among the most rewarding, thanks to DraftKings’ Grand Slam Payout, which is running through the end of May.
The rules for the promotion are pretty simple: if a user opts in and places a home run bet on any player (minimum $5 stake) and that player hits a grand slam, they’ll earn a share of $250,000 in bonus bets. If no player hits a grand slam that day, the prize pool will increase by $250,000 each day. Because Seattle Mariners outfielder Dominic Canzone hit a grand slam last night against Houston Astros starter Tatsuya Imai, the pool has been reset to $250,000.
Lopez is more of a contact hitter than a true slugger, given that he leads the National League with 55 hits so far, but he has sneaky power, having slugged 15 home runs last season and four so far in 2026. While he’s only five-foot-10, his 47th percentile bat speed is far better than that of the team’s leading home run hitter, Liam Hicks. He’s done a great job making the most of the pitches he sees, ranking in the 89th percentile in squared-up percentage, and his hard-hit rate, average exit velocity, and expected slugging percentage are all in the top quartile. The percentage of his hits that are pulled in the air has increased every season.
Lopez should see plenty of juicy pitches tonight from Simeon Woods Richardson. Woods Richardson has arguably been the worst qualified starter in baseball, leading all of the major leagues with five losses and the American League with 30 runs allowed. He ranks in just the first percentile in pitching run value, the 15th percentile in average exit velocity, and the 18th-percentile in hard hit rate, giving up at least one homer in all but one of his starts. Woods Richardson likes to throw either his four-seam fastball or his slider to right-handed hitters, and Lopez has posted his two highest slugging percentages against those two pitches (.583 against sliders and .571 against four-seamers), hitting each for a homer once.
Plus, hitting a grand slam requires having three men on base, and Lopez’s position in the batting order should help him. As of late, he’s mostly batted third, and the two batters ahead of him (Xavier Edwards and Liam Hicks) rank first and third on the team, respectively, in on-base percentage. The most frequent ninth hitter has been Javier Sanoja, who has a respectable .326 OBP, but if one of those three fails to get on base, eighth hitter Leo Jiménez has reached base safely at least once in each of his last six games. Lopez hasn’t yet batted with the bases loaded this season, but he has 22 grand slam opportunities in his career and has performed 20% better than his average in such situations.
De La Cruz has had a tremendous start to his fourth season, posting a career-best .292/.355/.518 slash line and hitting 10 homers, by far the highest rate of his career. He’s seeing the ball particularly well right now, recording at least two hits in each of his last four games, and although he hasn’t gone deep since April 28, he’s had several 300-plus-foot outs since. All in all, the Dominican ranks in the 96th percentile in average exit velocity, the 91st percentile in hard-hit rate, and the 87th percentile in barrel rate, and while his whiff rate has let him down, it’s actually his lowest mark in a full season.
De La Cruz has a solid matchup tonight in Jake Irvin, who led all of the major leagues by allowing 38 home runs in 2025. While he’s improved on that so far in 2026, allowing only five in 39.2 innings of work, his overall numbers (a 5.22 ERA) still aren’t very good. While Irvin has done a decent job keeping opponents’ average exit velocities down, ranking in the 52nd percentile in that stat, he’s still conceded barrels at a 12th-percentile clip. Plus, the splits are not in his favor; he’s allowed an OPS 132 points higher in his career against lefties, and the switch-hitting De La Cruz has been 208 points better against righties. Irvin likes to throw either four-seam fastballs or curveballs to southpaws, and while De La Cruz hasn’t done so well against righty curveballs, he has a .539 expected slugging percentage this season against righty four-seamers.
De La Cruz has typically hit third, but he has been moved up to second for tonight, so if he hits a grand slam, he’ll need three of Nathaniel Lowe, Tyler Stephenson, TJ Freidl, Matt McLain, and Will Benson to be on base. None of those players has had a great offensive season, but Lowe, McLain, and Benson at least have OBP’s north of .300, and only Lowe hits for any power, so there’s at least some reasonable scenario in which all of them are on base at the same time. De La Cruz has had four plate appearances with the bases loaded this season, hitting two singles and a sacrifice fly, and he has two grand slams in his career.
— DraftKings Sportsbook (@DKSportsbook) May 1, 2026The Daily Grand Slam Payout is here this May ⚾️
Bet on who you think will hit a HR. If your pick hits a grand slam, you’ll split a share of $250,000.
No grand slam? The prize pool increases by $250K the next day. pic.twitter.com/reR33dpS43
For more information on this promo, click here!
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