FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball World Series Helper: Astros at Phillies, Game 3

The Astros and Phillies split the first two games in Houston and now head to Philadelphia for Game 3. Tonight's slate locks at 8:03 pm ET.

For those unfamiliar with the single-game daily fantasy baseball format, scoring is identical to its full roster cousin, except you only roster hitters, and lineups consist of five flex spots. The one twist? One of the five roster spots is your designated "MVP," who receives 2-times his total fantasy points, along with a "STAR" slot that gets 1.5-times the points. Naturally, it's crucial that you choose your MVP and STAR carefully if you want to be at the top of the leaderboards when it's all said and done.

On that note, let's highlight some of the top options for today's FanDuel single-game slate.

Pitching Breakdown

Houston will hand the ball to Lance McCullers on Monday, and he's enjoyed positive results this postseason, posting a 2.85 SIERA, 27.7% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate, and 50.0% walk rate in his two starts. The key for McCullers will be whether he can continue to keep free passes at a minimum; he put up a worrisome 11.3% walk rate in his eight regular season outings.

While we should expect a typical starter's workload for McCullers, the same can't be said for Noah Syndergaard. Syndergaard logged 3 innings and 35 pitches in his lone start in these playoffs, and he's otherwise been used as a reliever, most recently going 1 1/3 innings in Game 4 of the NLCS. For all intents and purposes, the Phillies are rolling with a bullpen game tonight. Syndergaard has amassed a 20.0% strikeout rate and 5.0% walk rate over 5 1/3 innings of postseason work.

Slate Strategy

While it's tough to gauge specific matchups in a bullpen game, facing a slew of relievers figures to bet better than the alternative for the Astros, and that's reflected by the team being -134 road favorites, per FanDuel Sportsbook.

Against Syndergaard, left-handed batters Yordan Alvarez ($9,000) and Kyle Tucker ($7,000) will have a fantastic matchup in the early innings. The right-hander produced a mere 4.91 xFIP and 12.2% strikeout rate versus lefties this season. Alvarez and Tucker figure to generally have the platoon advantage for most of the night against a predominantly right-handed bullpen, as well. They're both ideal MVP candidates, though Alvarez will almost certainly be one of the most popular ones.

Syndergaard was better in same-sided matchups this year but was hardly dominant, either, producing a 20.3% strikeout rate and allowing a 39.1% fly-ball rate. The usual righties in the upper half of the order are also possibilities for the multiplier slots between Jose Altuve ($8,000), Jeremy Pena ($6,500), and Alex Bregman ($7,500). Altuve has struggled in the playoffs, but he's coming off a three-hit game and has at least one hit in four straight. Pena will likely be the least popular MVP of the group, making him intriguing for tournaments.

The rest of the Houston lineup features low salaries to round things out. Chas McCormick ($5,500) is arguably the standout value bat, as he's produced a fantastic .920 OPS this postseason.

Hopping to the other matchup, we don't have a huge sample to work with for McCullers, but he did have a lower strikeout rate versus righties in the regular season (23.2%). That possibly gives a bump to guys like Rhys Hoskins ($8,500) and J.T. Realmuto ($7,000) if you're siding with Philadelphia, but lefties Bryce Harper ($9,500) and Kyle Schwarber ($7,500) remain nightly top options regardless of the pitcher. All four players have hit at least three home runs in the postseason, and of the group, Realmuto ought to be the least popular MVP.

Outside of these four, the rest of the lineup hasn't made a ton of noise, but perhaps they can get in on the fun if McCullers' control is off tonight. Nick Castellanos ($6,500) and Alec Bohm ($6,000) benefit from solid spots in the order if they continue to bat fifth and sixth. Bryson Stott ($5,000) has gotten on base in five straight games, so he could have some value at his salary.