The Houston Astros are the first team this year to make it to 50 wins. The young team looks to be coming together nicely and will be the team to beat in the American league. They can put their feet up and coast the rest of the way this season. Take the Astros win total and cut it in half- that is how many home runs Aaron Judge has already on the season. He will have 30+ before the All-Star break.
It’s Friday so my lineup will be found at the bottom of here, let’s win some money.
Low-Scoring Plays
Cincinnati Reds @ Washington Nationals – Strasburg gets the call for the Nationals as he looks to have a huge start in this one. Strasburg wasn’t great in his last outing, however he was still able to pick up the win. Scherzer had a great start for the Nationals, look for Strasburg to follow that up and have the start of the season in this one. Pitching at home against a Reds team that is an average offense is a match up that I love. The Nationals coming back from an off day the National bats will be a little slow but they should show up in this one. Turner and Zimmerman would be the position plays I would take in this one.
Targets: Strasburg, Turner, Zimmerman
Baltimore Orioles @ Tampa Rays – The Orioles have fell off the face of the earth. Boston was struggling early this year and it looked like the race would become between the Orioles and the Yankees-not anymore. Archer takes the mound for the Rays who should have a huge game in this one. Another stud pitcher getting the call at home, he should have a ton of strike outs in this one. The Oriole stars have been quite and won’t do anything in this game. Taking Archer and Strasburg will be difficult, but if you are willing to sacrifice your position players I would do it.
Targets: Archer, Longoria
Colorado Rockies @ L.A. Dodgers – The Rockies have been shut down the past two days by the Diamondbacks. It isn’t going to get any easier tonight as they face Alex Wood. Wood has yet to pick up a loss on the season and I don’t think he will pick one up at home. The Dodgers offense has been playing well, as they beat up on the Mets all weekend. Wood will be a good play although there is potential for the Rockies to get to him. He is my third ranked pitcher on the day, and will be a good play.
Targets: Wood, Turner, Puig
High-Scoring Play
Texas Rangers @ New York Yankees – Aaron Judge sent another ball over the wall last night to reach 25 on the season. The Rangers scored 11 last night on the Blue Jays while Stroman was on the mound. Stroman is a 10x better pitcher than Tanaka is so look for the Rangers to break this one open. The Yankees should also be able to score some runs in this one as well. They have lost 8 of their last 9 and needs to get back on streak soon. Since Tanaka is terrible I’ll side with the Rangers but taking NYY players won’t be too terrible.
Targets: Napoli, Odor, Beltre
L.A. Angels @ Boston Red Sox – L.A. was able to score last night against Severino and the Yankees who is having a strong year. Pujols showed up all series and drove in runs, and I like him to do that against Boston too. Maybin has been smoking the ball, the series against the Yankees he hit .370 with 3 home runs. Porcello takes the mound for the Red Sox who isn’t great this year. Look for the Angels to put up some runs early in this one as Porcello has an ERA above 20 in the first inning this year.
Targets: Pujols, Maybin
New York Mets @ San Francisco Giants – The Mets have been getting bullied by the Dodgers and didn’t make any noise all series. Well now they go to San Fran where they should have an easier time. The Mets have fire power, Cespedes needs to break out of his little slump and hit a long ball. With Duda, Bruce, Cespedes, and Conforto, runs should be produced. This series will be make or break for the Mets. They are already in a massive hole but if they don’t come out of this one then the season is over.
Targets: Cespedes, Bruce, Duda
My DraftKings Lineup
Strasburg-WAS-SP
Corbin-ARI-SP
Chirinos-TEX-C
Pujols-LAA-1B
Odor-TEX-2B
Shaw-MIL-3B
Simmons-LAA-SS
Stanton-MIA-OF
Cespedes-NYM-OF
Benintendi-BOS-OF
Check out our MLB Breakdown Spreadsheet and our newly-released Pitcher Breakdown Spreadsheet (these picks – all over/unders – are now at 50.4% accuracy since May 21) where you can compare key statistics and numbers for today’s games.