Fantasy Baseball Picks: Top DraftKings MLB DFS Lineup Strategy for Padres vs. Dodgers Showdown on April 23

After taking the opening game of the series on Thursday, the San Diego Padres will try to make it two in a row against the team with the best record in the bigs, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Los Angeles continued to struggle against left-handed pitching on Thursday, and this time will face a righty in Yu Darvish ($10,400), but a tough one at that. The defending champs will counter with one of the best in the game, Clayton Kershaw ($10,600). Without further ado, let’s get into how to construct your DraftKings lineups for Friday night’s Showdown contest.

San Diego Padres vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

Captain’s Picks

Yu Darvish ($15,600 CP) - You’ll want to get one of these two studs in your lineup, and I think I land on Darvish here. He’s got great lifetime numbers (or, numbers in the Statcast era) against the current Dodgers, who have just a .202 xwOBA against him. Kershaw, on the other hand, allowed three earned runs against the Friars the two starts before he shut them down last Saturday. Darvish has kicked up the spin rate on his fastball this season and has looked almost un-hittable. I think he should keep cruising against a team he’s owned.

Will Smith ($12,000 CP) - If you don’t believe me, that’s fine. You can go ahead and stack up the Dodgers. That should start with Smith, who will save you money and let you maybe even get both starters in your lineup. We know Smith is a good hitter, and he consistently finds himself in the cleanup spot for L.A. What we also know is that he mashes righties, to the tune of 205 wRC+ so far this year and a 174 mark last season. People might be hesitant to insert Smith into their lineups after a few bad games, but those all came against left-handers. This is an amazing price on a great hitter.

Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB Showdown $10K Extra Inning [$2K to 1st] (SD vs LAD)

Value Plays

Manny Machado ($8,400) - If you play Smith, then this counts as a value play. The fact is, there are so many higher-priced options and Machado is a pretty sneaky one at $8,400. Going next-level, he had two hard-hit balls off of Kershaw last Saturday, smoking a 106-MPH single off him in the sixth and flying out in the fourth on a ball hit at 96.1 MPH. Machado tends to get up for these big games, and he was able to read Kershaw pretty well last time out. I have no issues with him in this price range.

Eric Hosmer ($7,400) - On the surface, this might not seem like a good spot to take a lefty, but Hosmer is an exception. In the 30 at-bats he’s had against Kershaw which have been tracked by Statcast since 2015, he’s recorded 10 hits, including two home runs. The slugger has a hit in each of the past three games, and 11 in his last 10 games, with two doubles. He’s seeing the ball well right now, and he wasn’t in the lineup last time out against Kershaw. Should he start, he could be a difference-maker.

Fades

Tommy Pham ($4,800) - Just don’t do it. Barring a drastic change, he’ll hit sixth or seventh against one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he’s had an adverse time making contact with the baseball this year. He was 0-4 with two strikeouts when the Padres faced Kershaw last weekend, and I don’t expect anything different here. Let the sheep chase Pham on an unstoppable two-game hitting streak. He’s going to be tempting at $4,800, but there’s a reason he’s this cheap. He’s a pass.

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The Outcome

I give the Padres a pretty good chance to win this game given their vast history against Kershaw, and on the other hand Darvish has had the Dodgers’ number. I think more than two runs should be scored this time around with the Dodgers ready to pounce on a lefty, but in the end the Padres will continue hitting well and pull it out.

Final Score: Padres 4, Dodgers 2

Set your DraftKings fantasy baseball lineups here: MLB Showdown $10K Extra Inning [$2K to 1st] (SD vs LAD)

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