Baseball brings three playoff games Friday, thanks to Game 2 of the series between the Yankees and Guardians being rained out Thursday. That game will now be the first of the day, and it has the potential to be a great pitching matchup between Shane Bieber and Nestor Cortes. The two National League series will also resume, with both of them tied up at a game apiece. The Phillies could be in a particularly good spot to go up 2-1, returning home with Aaron Nola on the mound. Let's dig into the options on Yahoo and highlight some players to consider for your lineups.
Pitchers
For as good as Atlanta's lineup is, they also strike out a lot. In fact, they had the second-most strikeouts in the league during the regular season. That makes Nola ($44), who has posted a strikeout rate of at least 29.1 percent in each of the last three seasons, a viable option. He faced Atlanta five times this year, and he had at least seven strikeouts in each game.
Cortes ($46) had a breakout season for the Yankees, recording a 2.44 ERA and a 3.13 FIP. Opponents had just a 5.3 percent barrel rate against him, which was the lowest mark of his career. To finish the regular season, he allowed two or fewer runs in six straight starts. He could dominate the Guardians, who had a .646 OPS versus left-handed pitchers during the regular season.
Top Targets
The Padres will turn to Blake Snell ($43), who finished the regular season with a 3.38 ERA and a 2.80 FIP. However, he's had walk issues throughout his career, which makes him risky. When he faced the Mets in the wild-card round, he walked six batters over 3.1 innings. The Dodgers could be productive in this matchup, with Trea Turner ($21) standing out as someone to target. Snell's strength is strikeouts, but those might be difficult to come by with Turner, who only has a career 18.0 percent strikeout rate.
Bryce Harper ($18) is heating up at the right time for the Phillies. He already has four hits in this series, two of which were doubles. Dating back to the regular season, he has at least one hit in six of his last seven games. Atlanta had yet to officially name their starter for Game 3 as of early Friday morning, but regardless of who takes the mound, Harper is a tough out when he's locked in at the plate.
Bargain Bats
Going back to the Dodgers, it's difficult to resist Mookie Betts ($12) and Justin Turner ($12) at such cheap salaries. Betts had a career-high 35 home runs to go along with his .373 wOBA this year. Turner has generally had success against left-handed pitchers, posting a .391 wOBA against them since the start of the 2017 season.
