All 30 MLB clubs are in action on Sunday, highlighted by an eight-game afternoon slate loaded with firepower to fuel your DFS lineups.
From bona fide stars to stealthy value plays, let’s take a look at three must-starts for Sunday afternoon.
Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here before 1:35 p.m. ET: MLB $150K Bat Flip [$50K to 1st].
SP Cristopher Sanchez | Philadelphia Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals ($11,800)
On August 11, Philadelphia ace Cristopher Sanchez twirled six scoreless frames in St. Louis on just four hits and zero walks, while racking up seven strikeouts. And on Sunday afternoon, he gets to face them again on his home turf.
The superstar southpaw, 29, has posted MLB’s fifth-lowest ERA (2.51) and FIP (2.61) across 26 starts (161.2 IP) in 2026. That number is down to 1.17 in four turns (23 IP) since the beginning of August. Sanchez enters Sunday’s series finale averaging 10.41 strikeouts per nine innings — ninth-best in baseball — while leading all qualified starters with a 57.6 percent ground-ball rate.
It seems unlikely that the Cardinals will have an answer for Sanchez this time around. Albeit hampered by poor batted-ball luck, St. Louis ranks 22nd in wRC+, 24th in wOBA, and 27th in ISO this season.
1B Pete Alonso | Baltimore Orioles vs. Tampa Bay Rays ($5,900)
The Orioles are mired in another lost season, but there’s no denying that they knocked it out of the park in recruiting Pete Alonso. The righty slugger has been characteristically dominant in his first season in Baltimore, recording his seventh 30-homer campaign in eight seasons. He enters Sunday with an .866 OPS while ranking sixth in MLB with 85 RBIs.
Even better, the “Polar Bear” continues to get hotter as the season progresses. Since the beginning of August, Alonso is hitting .387 with a 1.139 OPS and seven bombs — four of which have come in his last eight games. He leads MLB in wRC+ (222), wOBA (.487), and xwOBA (.491) amid this torrid stretch.
Alonso now draws a favorable matchup with Tampa Bay’s Nick Martinez, against whom he has already gone 2-for-7 (.286) with a home run and a walk in past meetings. While the veteran right-hander has managed an impressive 3.05 ERA across 24 starts (141.2 IP) this year, he’s also liable for a lofty 4.50 xERA, a swollen .279 xBA, and a dismal 36.3 percent ground-ball rate. Martinez’s 14.5 percent strikeout rate is the lowest mark among qualified starters.
OF Carson Benge | New York Mets at Chicago White Sox ($4,000)
The silver lining for another disappointing Mets season has come from the club’s emerging young core, anchored by rookie outfielder Carson Benge. The lefty-swinging outfielder has hit an impressive .276 with a .761 OPS and 16 homers in his first taste of major league action.
Benge has continued to look more comfortable at the plate as the year goes on, and on Saturday he went yard for the second time in his last three games. Since the beginning of August, he boasts a .329 average and a .968 OPS with five bombs.
On Sunday afternoon, Benge gets his first look at struggling right-hander Erick Fedde. The veteran is saddled with a 4.33 ERA and an even worse 4.59 xERA across 27 outings (12 starts) in 2026, ranking in the bottom ten percent of pitchers in strikeout rate (16.5 percent), whiff rate (18.2 percent), and chase rate (23.8 percent). Since the beginning of August, Fedde’s ERA sits at an unsightly 6.00.
