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We’ve made it to the first Sunday of the MLB Postseason, and we’ve got two great ALDS games on tap. Tampa Bay will look to regain home-field advantage in a series level at 1-1, while the White Sox will have it all to do down in a 2-0 hole. With the stage set, here are my best MLB bets to consider on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Houston Astros at Chicago White Sox
Astros ML +105
I’m a huge fan of youngster Luis Garcia, who has pitched to a pretty stellar 26.4% strikeout rate and 3.95 xERA this season for an inexperienced arm. I’m not as high on Dylan Cease, who has seemed to really tank after expectations were set so high for him entering the year. It’s hard to call him bad, but he’s been prone to nightmare outings like his seven-run clunker against the Red Sox last month and gave up seven runs in a start against the Astros earlier this year.
Cease’s historical struggles against the Astros (he also gave up three runs on six hits and two walks over 5 2⁄3 innings this year) make him hard to trust against an offense which has hit so well since the start of September. The Astros bullpen has also been surprisingly good in this series, so I think they’re set up very well here for the win with Garcia on the hill backing an offense that should hit the ball.
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Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox
Red Sox ML (-120)
The Rays may be in trouble here. This Red Sox offense is making an insane amount of quality contact at the moment, producing a 54.3% hard-hit rate with a barrel rate of 20% in Game 2 which followed a 53.3% mark in Game 1 and 68.4% in the wild-card game.
I bring that up because Rays starter Drew Rasmussen has allowed hard-hit balls at the sixth-worst clip among all pitchers in baseball, with a minimum of 100 batted ball events. He’s backed by a bullpen that is coming off an awful showing in Game 2 as well; Collin McHugh, one of the most important arms in that stable, was totally demolished in Game 2. Matt Wisler, another vital arm, didn’t fare much better.
The Red Sox bullpen has been surprisingly good, and Nathan Eovaldi has come alive over his last two starts and looks like an All-Star again. I think Boston has the far stronger staff for Game 3, and at home you have to take them.
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is jetsfan196) and I may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.