MLB Wild Card odds, trends: Max Scherzer Over 5.5 strikeouts is most-wagered player prop Friday

It's incredibly rare to have a player prop in one of the four major American sports have a 100 percent lean. As of this writing, however, that's the case when it comes to three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer of the New York Mets in his home Wild-Card round start tonight against the San Diego Padres. He is set at 5.5 strikeouts (-115) and literally every wager at BetMGM is on the Over. It's also the most-wagered MLB player prop of the day so far.

Tonight is the Mets' first playoff game since 2016. Scherzer has made 26 postseason appearances in his Hall of Fame career with the Tigers, Nationals and Dodgers and has pitched to a 7-6 record, 3.22 ERA, 1.104 WHIP and 160 strikeouts in 128.2 innings. He won three games in the 2019 postseason, which concluded with a World Series title for Washington. Scherzer will be the first Met age 38 or older to start a postseason game since Tom Glavine in the 2006 NLCS.

The right-hander missed a chunk of this season injured but finished 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA and 173 strikeouts in 145.1 innings. He faced the Padres at Citi Field on July 22 and allowed two runs and five hits in six innings while striking out eight batters. Scherzer has topped 5.5 strikeouts in only three of his past six outings overall. The Padres in the regular season ranked 22nd in batter strikeouts with 1,327, which equates to about 8.2 per game.

Some other Scherzer props today: over/under 16.5 outs recorded (Over -145 favorite), +180 to record a win and -250 not to, O/U 4.5 hits allowed, O/U 1.5 walks and O/U 1.5 earned runs.

Scherzer is opposed by Yu Darvish (16-8, 3.10) and the total has dropped from an open of 6.5 to 6. Since 2005, in playoff games with totals of 6 or fewer runs the Over is 12-7-1.

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