Bryan Armetta shares his three favorite MLB NRFI prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for Thursday\u2019s Opening Day slate.<\/p>\n
Opening Day is finally here, with 11 games between 22 different teams on tap for Thursday. As always, bettors will be eager to pick out a few enticing MLB plays on this loaded slate. Few wagers are more exciting than the NRFI; six outs without any scoring are all we need to cash in. Still, that\u2019s easier said than done. Finding the right pitchers, and the best value, is crucial.<\/p>\n
Ahead of today\u2019s MLB contests, here are three NRFI bets<\/a> worth placing on DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a>.<\/p>\n On a Thursday filled with marquee matchups, Rays vs. Cardinals doesn\u2019t exactly stand out. Regardless, that could make this the perfect under the radar NRFI pick. For the visitors, it\u2019ll be Drew Rasmussen toeing the slab. It was a career year for the right-hander, who led an otherwise middling Tampa Bay pitching staff. Through 150.0 innings, he notched a 2.76 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 127 strikeouts. Last season, Rasmussen\u2019s first inning ERA was a respectable 3.19. It helps that St. Louis\u2019 offense posted baseball\u2019s second-lowest YRFI rate (24.07%).<\/p>\n The bigger challenge for this bet will come in the top half of the inning. Tampa Bay wields a handful of formidable bats, led by Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminero. Regardless, Cardinals hurler Matthew Liberatore typically gets off to a strong start. The 26-year-old delivered a 3.10 first inning ERA in 2025, holding teams scoreless 76% of the time. In addition, the Rays accounted for the league\u2019s seventh-lowest on-base percentage vs. left-handers last season (.295). Busch Stadium, a pitcher-friendly venue, should keep fly balls from traveling too far as well.<\/p>\n For what feels like over a decade, the Angels have struggled in their pitching development. One of the organization\u2019s few successes in recent years is Jose Soriano. To be clear, the right-hander is far from a sure thing. Command issues have plagued him throughout a three-year MLB career. Still, he\u2019s shown flashes of greatness at various points for Los Angeles. Soriano has dominated against Thursday\u2019s opponents, the Astros. The Dominican has given up just one run over 13.2 innings during his last two meetings with Houston. <\/p>\n On the flip side, Hunter Brown is already one of the American League\u2019s best pitchers. Following a terrific second half in 2024, the righty kept rolling last season. Through 185.1 innings of work, he posted a 2.43 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 206 strikeouts. That includes a stellar 80.6% NRFI rate, among the Junior Circuit\u2019s best marks. Brown has been especially good in this matchup; he\u2019s given up four total runs over his last four meetings with LA (1.57 ERA). Against a Halos lineup that struggles hitting on the road, Houston\u2019s ace should avoid an early setback.<\/p>\n For years, T-Mobile Park has been an NRFI hotspot. In fact, cavernous dimensions have turned it into the exact opposite of Coors Field: a pitcher\u2019s paradise. No statistic proves this better than the Mariners\u2019 2025 YRFI splits at home. A powerful lineup led by MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh only scored 21.8% of the time in Seattle during the first inning. That\u2019s the second-worst mark at home among all MLB clubs. Cleveland pitcher Tanner Bibee will hope that trend continues on Thursday. The talented righty posted a 77.4% NRFI rate last season.<\/p>\n If a talented Mariners lineup struggles to hit tonight, the same will likely be true for the Guardians. Cleveland\u2019s offense posted a 24.7% YRFI rate on the road last season, fifth-worst in baseball. Seattle will hand the ball to one of the sport\u2019s better arms this evening in Logan Gilbert. The former All-Star loves pitching in the Emerald City, recording a 2.24 ERA at home in 2025. It\u2019s difficult to envision the visitors generating traffic on the base paths in this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bryan Armetta shares his three favorite MLB NRFI prop bets on DraftKings Sportsbook for Thursday\u2019s Opening Day slate.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,16316,16581],"class_list":["post-222175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-rail","tag-splits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}