MLB predictions: Our three favorite player props for Wednesday’s matinee action

The Philadelphia Phillies avoided their first 0-5 start in 89 years Tuesday night, rolling to a 4-1 victory at Yankee Stadium.

The four runs nearly matched Philadelphia’s total from its previous three games combined (five). Along the way, the Phillies pounded out 10 hits, including a pair of home runs — doubling the team’s season output.

Watching it all from the dugout was catcher J.T. Realmuto, who took the night off.

The three-time All-Star will be back in the lineup Wednesday afternoon when Philadelphia concludes its season-opening six-game road trip with a getaway-day rubber match against the Yankees, who will hand the ball to ace Gerrit Cole.

Bad news for the Phillies? Maybe. Bad news for Realmuto? Not at all.

Read on for an explanation, as Realmuto tops our three MLB player prop predictions for Wednesday.

Odds updated as of 9:30 a.m. ET on April 5.

Realmuto took his first respite of the season Tuesday after being behind the plate for the first four games.

Why would Philadelphia manager Rob Thompson choose to give his veteran catcher Tuesday off instead of benching him in Wednesday’s matinee affair against Cole?

The answer is in these numbers: 11 and 17.

The former is how many hits Realmuto has recorded against Cole in his career. The latter is Realmuto’s career at-bats total against Cole.

That 11-for-17 effort pencils out to a .647 average. Not too shabby against one of the best pitchers on the planet.

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So we’re betting that a fresh Realmuto will get to Cole (or one of the Yankees’ relief pitchers) at once again on Wednesday afternoon.

Realmuto went 4-for-7 in his first two games of the season against the Rangers, including a three-hit game on Opening Day. However, the 32-year-old is just 1-for-8 in his last two starts (0-for-4 on Sunday in Texas; 1-for-4 on Monday in New York).

So perhaps Tuesday’s day off came at just the right time. At least that’s our hope, as we’re backing Realmuto to collect a hit for the fourth time in five games.

Cole was filthy in his Opening Day start against the San Francisco Giants on Thursday. He struck out the side in the first inning, did it again in the second inning and finished with 11 whiffs across his six innings of work.

Including three postseason outings, Cole fanned at least nine batters in 14 of 36 starts last year. And the 2022 strikeout king did it in consecutive starts five times.

In retrospect, Cole’s domination of San Francisco six days ago wasn’t all that surprising. That’s because the game was played in daylight, which is significant because Cole’s strikeout rate jumps when pitching under the sun (1.25 per inning) as opposed to under the lights (1.15 per inning).

Also noteworthy: The Phillies’ hitters have faced one high-level strikeout pitcher this season — Jacob deGrom on Thursday afternoon in Texas. DeGrom got blasted for five runs in 3 2/3 innings. However, seven of the 11 outs the two-time Cy Young winner recorded were on strikeouts.

Philadelphia also whiffed eight times in 4 2/3 innings Tuesday against Yankees right-hander Domingo Germán.

So while we believe Cole will have trouble putting away Realmuto, we’re equally confident he’ll rack up enough punchouts against the rest of the Philadelphia lineup to clear this prop number.

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The only pitcher who had arguably a better Opening Day outing than Cole last week was Ohtani.

The Anges’ two-way superstar and World Baseball Classic MVP limited the Oakland A’s to two hits and three walks while striking out 10 in six innings. Going back to last season, Ohtani’s last three starts have come against the A’s, and he gave up a total of five hits in 19 total innings of work.

Yes, Oakland’s putrid offense features a bunch of Triple-A level hitters (if that). That’s supported by the team’s .218 batting average.

Well, guess who else is batting .218 as a team? The Seattle Mariners — and that’s even after Tuesday’s 11-run outburst against the Angels.

The Mariners faced Ohtani three times last season and managed 3, 7 and 3 hits in those contests. In all, Ohtani surrendered fewer than five hits in half of his 28 starts in 2022 — including the last four in a row, when he gave up 3, 3, 2 and 1.

That means Ohtani enters Wednesday on a five-start streak of allowing three hits or fewer. He also enters Wednesday having allowed an average of 3.9 hits in 16 career daytime starts (compared with 4.2 hits when he pitches at night).

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