There’s a full 15-game schedule around the Majors on Saturday, but as is often the case on the weekend, things are a bit chopped up for DFS purposes. The main slate over at DraftKings DFS features just five games tonight, with action getting underway at 7:05 p.m. ET. With not a ton of options to choose from (or ways to differentiate your lineups) here are three teams we recommend stacking on Saturday.
Top MLB DFS stacks: Saturday, September 9
San Diego Padres vs. Houston Astros
Manny Machado ($5,200)
Ha-Seong Kim ($4,900)
Xander Bogaerts ($4,800)
Garrett Cooper ($2,700)
No-hitter aside, Astros lefty Framber Valdez has been a mess of late, with a 5.28 ERA and 1.41 WHIP in nine starts since the All-Star break. The Padres, for everything else that’s gone wrong this season, are an elite offense against left-handed pitching — they’re slashing .270/.349/.456 as a team against southpaws since the start of August — and just dropped 11 runs on this Houston pitching staff in a series-opening win on Friday. Bogaerts was front and center in that explosion, homering to raise his OPS over the last 10 games to 1.145. Machado tallied his third multi-hit effort in his last five, while Kim boasts a .935 OPS against lefties this year.
Texas Rangers vs. Oakland Athletics
Marcus Semien ($5,800)
Mitch Garver ($4,200)
Ezequiel Duran ($3,800)
Robbie Grossman ($3,000)
The Rangers are desperate for wins as they look to pull out of their second-half swoon and hang on to a playoff spot, and they should be in great position to get one against A’s lefty Kyle Muller on Saturday. Muller has given up nine runs over his last two outings and has given up a ridiculous .328/.394/.672 slash line so far in the second half. The first time he faced this Texas lineup this year, he allowed four runs on seven hits and four walks in just five innings of work, and I’m expecting a repeat tonight. Garver has homered four times in his last 10 games, while Grossman is far better from the right side of the plate — he has a 1.068 OPS against lefties over the last month. (Duran, for his part, has an .876 mark.)
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Atlanta Braves
Bryan Reynolds ($4,800)
Ke’Bryan Hayes ($4,600)
Liover Peguero ($3,400)
Connor Joe ($3,300)
We don’t blame you if you want nothing to do with the Pirates’ offense, but Pittsburgh has one of the matchups of the day against Braves rookie lefty Dylan Dodd. After allowing just one run in five innings in his MLB debut back in early April, Dodd has allowed seven, three, four and five runs in each of his next four starts, the last of which came back in mid-June. The Braves sent him back down to Triple-A at that point, where he’s posted a 6.55 ERA over 14 appearances (13 starts). We simply don’t have a ton of evidence that he’s a Major League-caliber pitcher at this point, and while Pittsburgh isn’t the best lineup, they do have some right-handed bats who could do damage here. Hayes has been white-hot of late, slashing .318/.388/.682 over his last 11 games, and he’s slugging .534 against lefties this year. Joe has long been a southpaw specialist, and this season is no different, with an .843 OPS against lefties (compared to just .698 against righties).
