Baltimore Orioles first baseman/outfielder Heston Kjerstad will start at designated hitter and bat eighth in Monday's series opener against right-hander Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros.
Kjerstad will make his second career start in the bigs after he was promoted last week. Adley Rutschman will catch for John Means and bat second while James McCann joins the bench.
numberFire’s models project Kjerstad for 5.7 FanDuel points on Monday. Per our MLB Heat Map, the Orioles' implied total is 3.70, third-lowest on the board, and the game total is 8.5. Verlander has a 21.2% strikeout rate (bottom 35th percentile of league) and 6.7% walk rate (top 75th) across 143 1/3 innings this season.
Source: MLB.com