St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Dylan Carlson will start in center field on Friday afternoon and bat leadoff against left-hander Justin Steele and the Chicago Cubs.
Carlson will take over as the leadoff hitter against a lefty pitcher. Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan, who both hit left-handed, are out of the Cardinals' lineup Friday afternoon.
Carlson is numberFire's top point-per-dollar value among batters in Friday's matinee. He has a $5,000 salary on the single-game slate and numberFire's models project him for 10.2 FanDuel points. Per our MLB Heat Map, the Cardinals' implied total is 4.07 and the game total is 8.5. Steele has a 2.96 ERA and 3.34 xERA this season, with a 32.7% hard-hit rate (top 86th percentile of MLB), 22.0% strikeout rate, and 5.1% walk rate (top 91st percentile).
Source: MLB.com