So far, so good for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the dogfight of a Wild Card series against the Cincinnati Reds. The World Series champions’ Game 1 was almost over before it truly began, as Shohei Ohtani ($15,000 CP) took Hunter Greene’s fourth offering of the game deep and the Dodgers put five runs on the board in the first three innings en route to an 8-0 lead that their bullpen almost blew.
Ultimately, Los Angeles emerged with a 10-5 victory and will seek to close out the Reds tonight behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($18,900 CP). Since the playoff expansion in 2022, no Game 1 winner has lost the series and 10 of the 12 teams finished off the job in Game 2.
For what history says will be Cincinnati’s final game of the season, DraftKings is offering a Showdown contest with $100,000 in prizes, with $25,000 paid out to the winner. Here are two captain options, two FLEX plays, and one fade for tonight’s game.
Set your DraftKings MLB DFS lineups here: MLB Showdown $100K Relay Throw [$25K to 1st] (CIN @ LAD)
Reds vs. Dodgers Game 2 Showdown
Captain’s Picks
Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($18,900 CP) – Yamamoto’s salary is exorbitant, but sometimes it’s best just to go with the sure thing. The 27-year-old won NL Pitcher of the Month in September after allowing seven hits and two earned runs across 27 innings and is likely to be named a Cy Young Award finalist. All in all, his worst outing of his last six — a span in which he’s averaged 28.6 FPTS per game — was a 5.1-inning effort against the San Francisco Giants in which he conceded just one hit and walked six batters (21.8 FPTS). His 89th percentile strikeout rate, longevity, and league-leading .183 BAA make him a fantasy guarantee.
The Reds’ offensive ineptitude only helps Yamamoto’s case. Cincinnati limped into the postseason, posting the 11th-lowest OPS throughout the month, and they managed just four hits and two runs against Blake Snell in his seven innings yesterday. The Reds also had the eighth-worst OPS in road games and the ninth-worst OPS in road games, and in the one regular season series they played at Dodger Stadium, they totaled four runs and 16 hits across three games, none of which were started by Yamamoto. In his lone start against Cincinnati this season, he pitched seven innings of four-hit, one-run ball, walking two and striking out nine (32.2 FPTS).
Teoscar Hernández ($11,400 CP) – For a more budget-friendly option, look no further than Hernández, who smashed two homers last night. Though the Dominican has had an injury-riddled season and hasn’t been as impressive as he was in 2024, he started to heat up towards the end of the season, posting a solid .256/.304/.465 slash line in September and averaging 7.6 FPTS per game. Over the course of the campaign, he averaged 8.0 FPTS per game at Dodger Stadium and 10.9 FPTS per game against the Reds, although that number is heavily boosted by last night’s 35-FPT performance.
Plus, Hernández just has raw power — his 2024 Home Run Derby victory serves as proof — and Zack Littell ($15,900 CP) gave up the second-most homers in all of baseball this season. Littell has also been much worse since joining Cincinnati at the trade deadline, posting a 3.58 ERA and averaging 14.3 FPTS per game in 22 starts with the Tampa Bay Rays and just a 4.39 ERA and 12.3 FPTS per game in 10 starts with the Reds. Dodger Stadium has been by far the league’s most homer-friendly park for right-handed batters this season, and 16 of Hernández’s 25 homers this season came at home. Littell has a pretty eclectic pitch mix, but Hernández has recorded a 45% hard hit rate against all four pitches he throws most frequently to righties.
FLEX Plays
Shohei Ohtani ($10,000) – There’s not much to this one: Ohtani is Ohtani. In his last 10 games, he’s recorded double-digit FPTS seven times and slashed .293/.356/.854, averaging 14.4 FPTS per game. That sort of output makes him average more FPTS per game at the plate than Littell does on the mound, which is very, very rare. I shouldn’t need to dive deep into too many eye-popping Ohtani stats, but in case you wanted them, his OPS against righties is 1.076, he’s hit 31 of his 57 homers at home, and he’s had a 1.165 OPS in September. Littell’s pitch mix against lefties is less eclectic, as he mostly eschews his sinker, but Ohtani has slugging percentages north of .600 against four-seam fastballs, sliders, and splitters, and expected stats indicate he’s been unlucky not to do do even better.
Matt McLain ($5,600) – Given Yamamoto’s dominance, it was tough for me to pick any Cincinnati player, but if there is any, it’s McLain. He was one of two Reds, along with Spencer Steer ($6,600), to record multiple hits last night, and McLain is well-suited to take advantage of Yamamoto’s lone weakness, which is his lackluster control. Yamamoto’s 8.6% walk rate ranks in just the 38th percentile, and McLain ranked fourth on the team in walks this season and earned free passes at a 64th-percentile clip overall. He’s also historically been good against sinkers, which Yamamoto throws against righties far more frequently than against lefties.
Plus, with Will Smith ($8,400) relegated to pinch-hit duty, Ben Rortvedt ($3,000) will likely start behind the plate for the Dodgers, and Rortvedt has been a negative throwing catcher over each of the last two seasons, so McLain could take advantage of his speed to steal his 19th base of the season if Yamamoto offers him a free pass. McLain has most frequently been followed in the batting order by lefty TJ Friedl ($6,400) this season, and Yamamoto tends to throw more off-speed stuff to lefties, which could make it more enticing for McLain to attempt a steal.
Fades
Zack Littell ($10,600) – I know that it’s difficult to fit more than one pitcher into a fantasy lineup, and Yamamoto should be started in 100% of lineups, but in case there was any temptation to play Littell, there shouldn’t be. Not will the righty likely be shelled by Los Angeles’ high-powered lineup, he’s had a 9.00 ERA in five postseason relief appearances, including 2.2 innings of six-hit, three-run ball across two games against the Dodgers. Plus, Terry Francona may have a quick leash with him — his outs recorded over-under is set to just 9.5 at DraftKings Sportsbook — with converted starters Nick Martinez and Nick Lodolo both waiting in the bullpen.
The Outcome
It’s been a solid season for Cincinnati, which Fangraphs gave just a 20.2% chance of making the playoffs when the season started. The Reds have plenty of building blocks to be excited about, led by Elly De La Cruz ($9,000). But for the roller-coaster nature of its season, especially against NL Central opposition, Los Angeles has simply had Cincinnati’s number, winning six of the seven contests between the teams.
The Dodgers haven’t been quite as good in Yamamoto’s starts as his ridiculous stats might imply — just 17-13 — but they were 7-5 in his starts at home and 52-29 at home overall. The Reds, meanwhile, went 48-43 on the road and lost Yamamoto’s lone start against them.
