FanDuel MLB: Thursday ALCS Breakdown

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Published on October 17, 2019

Thursday's MLB slate consists of only Game 4 of the American League Championship Series at 8:08 p.m. ET. This is the makeup of Wednesday's Game 3 rainout, and Game 5 will be moved to Friday, which was originally a travel day.

Pitching

This would have been a bullpen game from both sides if it ran as scheduled Wednesday, but it instead becomes a rematch of the Game 1 pitching matchup between Zack Greinke (4.58 ERA in 76.2 career postseason innings) and Masahiro Tanaka (1.32 ERA in 41 career postseason innings). New York won the series opener 7-0 when these two pitchers faced off, and the Yankees should be viewed as favorites to repeat a similar result here at home.

Correlations

While most of the breaks have gone Houston's way, New York should come out desperate after falling behind 2-1 in this series. Ignoring Giancarlo Stanton (quadriceps), the Yankees' offense has had three top conributors in this series: Gleyber Torres ($7,500, 1.500 OPS), Aaron Judge ($8,500, .895 OPS) and DJ LeMahieu ($7,000, .852 OPS). Those three players should lead the way once again, and Torres should be a serious candidate for your MVP spot.

If the Astros are going to take a commanding 3-1 lead, expect Jose Altuve ($9,500) to lead the way. He was on base three times in Game 2 and twice more in Game 3, including a first-inning home run. Altuve could be used as your MVP or All-Star, and the same goes for Alex Bregman ($9,000), who had a .450 road wOBA in the regular season, with at least a .430 mark against both righties and lefties. Michael Brantley ($7,000) could be a valuable part of an Astros stack, as well -- the left-handed slugger has the platoon advantage and is 5-for-15 with a home run against Tanaka in the regular season.

One-Offs

Josh Reddick ($4,500) went deep in Game 3, and the left-handed slugger has a nice opportunity to capitalize on the right field short porch in Yankee Stadium. He has the platoon advantage against Tanaka and has two home runs in 12 at-bats against Tanaka in the regular season.

Besides the four Yankees mentioned above, Gio Urshela ($4,500) was the other guy to post a multi-hit effort in Game 1. Urshela posted a solid .373 wOBA in righty-on-righty matchups during a breakout regular season.

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