FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball NLCS Helper: Padres at Phillies, Game 3

The NLCS is all tied up as the Padres and Phillies head to Philadelphia for Game 3. How should we tackle tonight's DFS slate?

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

If things play out as expected, the Padres should have a distinct starting pitcher advantage in Game 3.

Joe Musgrove has been excellent in his two postseason starts, allowing just 2 earned runs over 13 innings while posting a 26.0% strikeout rate. Musgrove seems to be carrying over his success in the regular season nicely, as he produced a 3.45 SIERA, 24.9% strikeout rate, and 5.7% walk rate over 30 starts.

The Phillies' Ranger Suarez comes in with more shaky credentials. The left-hander earned solid results off a 55.4% ground-ball rate this year, but he otherwise had a more unremarkable 4.11 SIERA, 19.5% strikeout rate, and 8.8% walk rate across his 29 games.

Suarez didn't exactly get off on the right foot in his first playoff start, either, lasting just 3 1/3 innings while issuing 5 walks in the NLDS. Although he managed to limit the damage to just one earned run, Philadelphia will surely be hoping for more innings -- and better control -- tonight.

Slate Strategy

We have to begin with the Padres in this one, and it's naturally their right-handed batters who are the ones to prioritize against Suarez.

With Suarez such a ground-ball pitcher, hitting home runs off the southpaw isn't easy, but he allowed a 29.3% fly-ball rate to righties this year, which is far easier to work with when we see that he gave up only an 18.6% fly-ball rate to lefties.

Manny Machado ($9,000) is the obvious candidate to cash in on this spot, but he could also end up as the highest-rostered player at MVP, so keep that in mind. Fellow righty Brandon Drury ($7,500) could be an intriguing MVP alternative who shouldn't garner as much attention, though. Drury is coming off the best season of his career, and much of that success came against left-handed pitching.

Among the other Padres righties, we should see Ha-Seong Kim ($6,000) batting leadoff, putting him firmly in the flex or STAR conversation, and Wil Myers ($5,500) has consistently performed well with the platoon advantage over his career. Josh Bell ($7,000) is also an option if he starts over Myers.

The lefties are secondary plays, but if San Diego chases Suarez from the game early then guys like Juan Soto ($7,500), Jake Cronenworth ($7,000), and Trent Grisham ($5,000) could still shine.

The lefty-lefty spot could lower Soto's roster percentage, which would make him particularly intriguing. Grisham has slugged three home runs this postseason, so he could still remain popular at his low salary regardless.

On the Phillies' side, Bryce Harper ($9,500) figures to be a chalky MVP no matter who's pitching, and the same probably goes for Kyle Schwarber ($8,500). But as two of this series' top home-run threats, they'll be chalk for good reason.

While Musgrove isn't the easiest guy to hit dingers off of, he isn't a big ground-ball pitcher and allowed a fly-ball rate above 35% against both sides of the plate this year.

That puts Rhys Hoskins ($7,500) and J.T. Realmuto ($8,000) in the multiplier conversation, as well. They could be two of the better MVPs in tournaments if they go overlooked.

The bottom half of Philadelphia's lineup is less exciting, but Nick Castellanos ($6,500) and Alec Bohm ($6,000) should bat fifth and sixth for Phillies-centric lineups.