Juan Soto @ Los Angeles Dodgers
- It’s been a rough week for the Mets’ lucrative offseason signing, and he’s sure to hear it again from the Dodger faithful. Statistically though, Soto has homered off Clayton Kershaw in the past, a hit that registered 95 MPH.
Eugenio Suarez @ St Louis Cardinals
- This is the only market where you can basically back Suarez with a bit of confidence. The DBacks’ big bopper has hit 14 over the fence this year, while he’s also gone yard twice against Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas during his career.
Matthew Boyd (CHC) vs Hunter Greene (CIN)
Siding with the Cubs here for a couple of reasons to kickoff this NL Central rivalry series.
Chicago is 6-2 following a day off, but I think the pitching matchup favours the North Siders despite Hunter Greene featuring heavily in NL Cy Young talks.
The flame-throwing righty posted a 4.86 ERA across three starts against the Cubs last year, while on the other side, the Reds rank Top 10 in strikeout rate against lefties, which favours Michael Boyd.
Freddy Peralta (MIL) vs Paul Skenes (PIT)
Paul Skenes remains appointment viewing this year, even if his numbers aren’t quite what they were during his Rookie of the Year season.
The second-year righty allowed only three hits and one run across eight innings in Philly last week, arguably his best start of the season after being rocked for three earned runs against the Cubs to start the month.
The Pirates hold the fourth-worst record in the league (17-34), but that didn’t stop them shutting down some early trade talk surrounding Skenes on Friday. With that in mind, this could be another start where the Cy Young favourite proves his worth.
Landen Roupp (SF) vs MacKenzie Gore (WAS)
I think the Nats have a bit of an edge here on both sides of the rubber.
MacKenzie Gore has been one of the most improved players in the league this year, finally living up to his first round draft status behind a 3.67 ERA whilst posting the most strikeouts in the league (84).
Offensively, the Nats have also woken up at the plate, sweeping the O’s last weekend to help them rank seventh in runs scored and runs batted in.