Best MLB Hits Allowed Matchups — Saturday, August 22, 2026
Top spot: Dean Kremer
Dean Kremer (MIN) draws the softest contact matchup on the board — around 4.9 H projected against SD. Suppressing hits is half stuff, half circumstance: whiffs mean fewer balls in play, and this defense-and-park combination decides what happens to the rest.
The rest of the top of the board
- Drew Anderson (DET) (100) — about 2.9 H vs KC.
- Michael Soroka (AZ) (100) — about 3.9 H vs CIN.
- Blade Tidwell (SF) (80) — about 3.4 H vs BOS.
- Shane McClanahan (TB) (69) — about 3.9 H vs BAL.
- Dylan Cease (TOR) (62) — about 4.2 H vs NYY.
How it played out
The top 10 starts averaged 4.1 H. Dean Kremer finished with 3. Every projection is graded against the box score.
Hits allowed is where luck lives — and where it doesn't
Once a ball is in play, roughly three in ten fall for hits league-wide, and no pitcher fully controls which three. What an arm does control: how many balls get put in play at all (whiff arms simply allow fewer hits), what kind of contact he gives up, and which half of the platoon he's exposed to. What he doesn't: his defense's range and his park's alleys. The model scores the controllable parts against tonight's specific lineup and lets the season-long noise wash out — which is exactly why a good hits-allowed spot and a good ERA aren't the same claim.
How to read the hits allowed board
The 0–100 score reads how hard tonight's lineup figures to make contact against this arm, hand by hand, with the park folded in. The projection beside it is expected hits allowed for the start, set against the book's line (usually 4.5 or 5.5) where one is posted. Graded against the box score, hit or miss, like everything here.
What the hits allowed board is
The Hits Allowed board projects the contact a starter is likely to surrender. One statistical model scores every matchup on the slate the same way — a star and a backup judged on the matchup in front of them, not their name — and every number is graded against the real box score once the games go final.
How the model gets its number
It isn't a gut call or a name game. The projection is built from a few things:
- His hit-suppression vs this lineup.
- The park.
- Projected batters faced.
Those pieces combine into one number, and the model re-tunes itself weekly against how its past calls actually landed.
Is there a betting edge here?
Graded transparency — the market prices it well. A sharp projection, no posted edge.
How to use it
Context on a starter's contact profile; research, not a lean.
Everything here is a research signal from the model, graded in public — not betting advice, and no outcome is guaranteed.
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