The National League Wild Card kicks off tonight with a matchup between the Cardinals and Dodgers. The Dodgers won the season series here four games to three. The Dodgers are BIG home favorites, sitting at -235 per DK Sportsbook as they send prized trade deadline acquisition Max Scherzer to the mound. For the Cardinals, they send veteran Adam Wainwright to the mound. Scherzer finished the season going 15-4 with a 2.46 ERA while striking out 236 over 179.1 innings. In his lone start against the Cardinals this season he tossed eight shutout innings, allowing just an unearned run while striking out 13. Wainwright also had a great season, going 17-7 with a 3.05 ERA while striking out 174 over 206.1 innings. In his one start against the Dodgers he allowed four runs over 8.1 innings while striking out four.
St. Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Dodgers
Moneyline: Cardinals (+190) / Dodgers (-235)
O/U: 7.5 runs
Head-to-head record this year: Dodgers 4 wins, Cardinals 3 wins
Offensive Ranks
Cardinals 4.36 runs per game (20th)
Dodgers: 5.12 runs per game (4th)
**Please note that players not listed below are not necessarily a complete fade and any player listed can certainly be used as the MVP/Captain. These are merely suggestions for players to use when setting Showdown lineups.
MVP/Captain
Max Scherzer, SP LAD - Max is the most expensive player on the board and it's for good reason as he could be the only one in your lineup that scores any points tonight. I say that in jest but with baseball, if we find ourselves in a pitchers duel, you could see some low scores from the hitters with the starters putting up big numbers. Max has elite strikeout upside and we already mentioned his 13 strikeout performance against this very team this season. Lock him in and figure out the bats later.
Adam Wainwright, SP STL - Same theory here, if you think Waino is going to get it done then I think this is the direction we go. The starting pitchers have the upside to be the highest scoring players on the slate. Sure, hitters have the home run upside, but it is difficult to bank on offensive production when facing top level pitching.
Trea Turner, 2B LAD - Turner is coming into this game as hot as a hitter can be, hitting .463 with six home runs and two stolen bases over the last 10 games. Turner is 5-for-14 (.357) with two doubles in his career off Wainwright. If you want to use a hitter, this is where we go as the MVP/Captain tonight.
Mid-Tier
Corey Seager, SS LAD - Seager is another Dodgers hitter that is on fire right now, hitting .500 with six home runs over the last 10 games. Limited to just 95 games this season due to injury, Seager finished the year hitting .306 with 16 home runs and a .915 OPS. Seager is 2-for-7 off Wainwright in his career with a double.
A.J. Pollock, OF LAD - Pollock is hitting .300 with five home runs and an OPS of 1.256 over the last 10 games. He has been a very consistent player for the Dodgers this season, hitting both left-handed and right-handed pitching equally well while providing some pop as evidenced by his 21 home runs and OPS of .892.
Paul Goldschmidt, 1B STL - If anyone is going to get to Max it could very well be Goldschmidt who was on fire during the second half of the season and lead to his impressive finish where he hit .292 with 30 home runs, 98 RBI and an OPS of .872. Over his last 10 games Goldy is hitting .371 with four home runs and an OPS of 1.250. Off Max he is just 5-for-32 with 16 strikeouts so, he would have to break the trend of him struggling in this matchup.
Harrison Bader, OF STL - Bader is hitting .412 over the last 10 games with an OPS of 1.282. He hit four home runs during that stretch along with three stolen bases. We are looking for hitters that are running hot heading into this matchup because face Scherzer is a tough task for any hitter. Bader finished the year hitting .266 with 16 home runs, 50 RBI and an OPS of .786. No Cardinals hitter has much success off Scherzer, Bader is 2-for-10 with a double.
Tommy Edman, 2B STL - Speaking of success against Scherzer, Edman is the guy that has managed to hit Max well. Though a limited sample, Edman is 4-for-9 with a double and a home run in his career off Scherzer. Edman has hits in five of the last six game and homered on the final day of the season.
Dart Throw
Matt Beaty, 1B LAD - Beaty gets the start in place of the injured Max Muncy and comes into this game on a bit of a heater, with two home runs over his last four at bats, going 4-for-4 during that stretch with five RBI and three runs. Beaty is the cheapy dart throw that helps you pay up for Scherzer tonight.
Yaddier Molina, C STL - Another cheap play here. Molina is still hitting in the middle of the Cardinals lineup and while he is far from the hitter he one was, he does have hits in six of his last eight games coming into tonight. Against Max? It's not great, going just 1-for-17 but just four strikeouts. I'll take putting the ball in play.
Cody Bellinger, OF LAD - What a disaster of a season for Bellinger as he hit just .165 with 10 home runs and an OPS of .542 over 95 games this season. This is a pure salary play with hopes that maybe we get lucky and he finds his way on base and to a run scored. On a positive note, Bellinger does have hits in four of the last five games.