Welcome to the third game of the ALCS between the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox!

 

Moneyline: Astros -103 / Red Sox -117

O/U: 9.0 runs

Head-to-head record this year in regular season: Astros 5 wins, Red Sox 2 wins

 

Offensive Ranks

Astros: 5.38 runs per game (1st)

Red Sox: 5.17 runs per game (4th)

As you can see, these are two of the best offenses in the league this season. 

**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

Eduardo Rodríguez, BOS – Erod is the only pitcher that I would consider tonight and I don’t feel great about it. Pitchers have had extremely short leashes in the playoffs so far and I really don’t see Urquidy pitching deep at all considering he wasn’t even used in the ALDS. Rodriguez may not go deep either, but there’s at least a chance that he does. He was strong in his second start in the ALDS round as he fired five innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts to score 17.5 points on DK. 

Rafael Devers, BOS – Devers is currently riding a six-game hitting streak and he has scored north of 20 points on DK in three of those games (with a home run in each) and he has 10 RBI in that span. Devers slashed .280/.357/.621 against righties this year with 32 home runs, compared to .278/.345/.405 against lefties with just six home runs. As you can see, the majority of the power damage he does is against righties with a massive difference in his SLG. He also hit .291 at home this year, compared to .268 on the road. 

Kyle Schwarber, BOS – Schwarber doubled, walked, and scored a run in the last game. I expect an even bigger game from him today though and would not be surprised if he clubs a home run tonight. Of the 32 home runs that Schwarber hit this year, 28 of them were against righties and he had a .623 SLG against them, compared to a .398 SLG against lefties. He also was FAR better in Boston this year as his home slash line was .296/.402/.665, compared to .233/.344/.435 on the road. 

Jose Altuve, HOU – Altuve scored zero points in the last game, but in the two games prior to that he scored 39 and 22 points on DK, homering in both games. Altuve has long been a strong performer in the playoffs as he owns a .301/.379/.566 slash line across 69 career postseason games with 20 home runs, 46 RBI, and 60 runs scored. He averages a home run every 14 at-bats in the playoffs for his career, which is crazy when you consider the fact that he averages a home run every 35.2 at-bats for his career in the regular season. 

 

UTIL

Kyle Tucker, HOU – Tucker has been incredible over the past five games, scoring 21, 27, 17, 0, and 17 points on DK with two home runs, three steals, six runs, and eight RBI in that span. Tucker had no issues with lefties this year, slashing .286/.332/.578 against them while averaging a home run every 14.2 at-bats against them, which was actually better than his 18.9 at-bat rate per home run against righties this season. 

Kiké Hernández, BOS – Hernandez is as hot as anyone can be right now, going 15-25 () over his last five games with FIVE home runs, eight runs scored, four doubles, and nine RBI. He has scored 40, 22, 5, 36, and 21 points on DK in that span. He is the embodiment of the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” He was also far better at home this year, slashing .270/.362/.483 in Boston, compared to .229/.308/.412 on the road. 

Alex Bregman, HOU – He had big platoon splits this season, slashing .300/.397/.442 against lefties, compared to .254/.332/.412 against righties. He was also far better on the road this year, slashing .297/.377/.453 away from Houston, compared to .244/.333/.392 at home. Everything lines up for Bregman to have a nice night at the dish tonight. 

Yuli Gurriel, HOU – Gurriel is heating up at the dish as he is 5-12 () over the last three games and he is coming off his highest scoring game of the playoffs thus far as he scored 21 points on DK in Game 2 with  a home run and three RBI. He was great against southpaws this year, slashing .326/.394/.530 against lefties with eight home runs in 181 at-bats, compared to a .315/.378/.427 slash line against righties with just seven home runs in 349 at-bats. 

 

Dart Throws

Christian Vázquez, BOS – Vazquez has scored zero points in this series against the Astros thus far, but he scored 15, 16, and 8 points on DK in the three games prior to that. He had big time reverse splits this year, slashing .277/.335/.375 against righties, compared to .219/.250/.305 against lefties. 

Jose Siri, HOU –Siri is drawing the start in CF for Houston today and I think he makes for an interesting play. He slashed .333/.412/.667 against lefties in 17 PA against them this season. A very small sample size, but he also had four home runs and three steals in just 46 at-bats this season.