This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
MLB's postseason gets underway Tuesday with the American League Wild Card contest, and it's a classic showdown of AL East rivals with the Red Sox and Yankees squaring off in Fenway Park. Boston took the season series 10-9, though the Yankees earned all nine of their wins in the last 12 meetings, including a late-season three-game sweep last weekend. New York enters as slight (-122) favorites, and we have a run total of 8.0.
Pitching Breakdown
We've got two big, hard throwing righties on the bump here, with Gerrit Cole opposed by Nathan Eovaldi. Given the divisional familiarity, we'll likely have some reasonable BvP numbers to target later. These are the situations the Yankees are paying Cole to handle, but he'll have to overcome some mixed results against Boston to date. He was 1-2 in Fenway during the regular season, allowing 19 hits and 12 runs across 16.0 innings while posting a 20:7 K:BB and serving up five long balls. Casual players will assume Cole is the bona fide ace here and fade Red Sox bats, which could create some leverage opportunities.
Eovaldi had better success against his Tuesday adversary this season, posing a 3.71 ERA (14 ER in 34.0 innings) and fanning 34 while allowing 42 base runners. He too gave up five homers (predictable, as the harder the ball comes in the harder it goes out). Chasing power is a volatile business in the DFS realm, but it's more successful for these showdowns, and with these arms allowing 10 total homers across 50 innings, we can loosely expect two big flies on average.
Neither arm affords us any discernible LvR or RvR matchups to target.
Hitting Correlation
Joey Gallo ($6,000), somewhat surprisingly, leads the home run odds at +220, and given his salary he's not the worst gamble, as you're not splurging on his feast or famine nature. If you're backing the Yankees in your build, Gallo allows you to consider both Giancarlo Stanton ($8,500) and Aaron Judge ($9,500) and still find reasonable options to round out your lineup. Stanton is 7-for-27 with nine Ks, two homers and two doubles against Eovaldi, while Judge is 8-for-20 with a homer, two doubles and three Ks. Judge seems like the lazy pick as the slate's most expensive bat, but he's the right MVP target, especially in cash lineups.
Boston's offense seems to be far more volatile. Rafael Devers ($9,000) is just 4-for-19 against Cole with eight Ks, but three of those knocks have left the yard. He's Boston's version of Stanton, but there isn't a clear parallel to Judge. Xander Bogaerts ($8,000) misplaced his hit tool for essentially the entire second half, and his only appeal Tuesday is as a contrarian play, assuming he'll be heavily faded. Bobby Dalbec ($5,500) is the Gallo comp for feast-or-famine power. He's yet to face Cole.
One-offs
Gio Urshela ($5,000) looks like he'll be in the lineup, and Kyle Higashioka ($4,000) is confirmed as the Yankees' backstop, providing a couple cheap dart throws to allow spending up elsewhere. If I'm stacking Red Sox and taking just one Yankee bat, I think Anthony Rizzo ($7,500) is going to be overlooked compared to Stanton and Judge. He's 5-for-9 against Eovaldi and has homered in two of his last four games after failing to do so in 16 straight.
J.D. Martinez doesn't appear as though he'll be able to play, but he'd be a fine upside target at $7,000 if his ankle holds up. He's 4-for-20 against Cole with 10 Ks, but all his hits have gone for extra bases. Enrique Hernandez ($6,500) is the clear BvP target in Boston's lineup as he sports a 1.481 OPS against Cole, having gone 5-for-11 with a homer, two doubles and three walks against the righty.
