Ray Flowers talks what happened Tuesday and foreshadows what could happen Wednesday by looking at the matchups like he's basically done every day for the baseball season. A tireless worker with a small ego, Ray is pushing to the finish line to help your championship winning cause.
Kyle Gibson had a career best eight strikeouts Thursday as he allowed one run over seven innings. It was his first quality start since August 13th. Just cannot trust him.
Felix Hernandez allowed eight runs in 4.2 innings last night. A season high run total and a season low innings pitched mark. He 
entered the game having allowed three runs in 28 September innings before giving up seven runs in the 5th inning. Did that outing cost him the Cy Young? Probably not.
Matt Holliday has hit 20 homers for a 9th straight years. Lookie there, he's also posted 90 RBIs and 83 runs scored. He's recorded 80 runs in each of those nine seasons and only once has he failed to record 88 RBIs in that time. Consistent is as consistent does. He's been blasting away in the second half as well crushing it to the tune of a .291/.371/.533 with 14 homers and 45 RBIs over 70 games.
Derek Jeter has stunk this year. Sorry Derek. Finishing off with a flair though as he's hit .400 with six RBIs in his last six games. Good for you Derek.
Brian McCann is batting .235 with a .290 OBP, and those numbers are way off his career norms (.272 and .343). Not good. However, he has blasted 23 homers, 19 of which have been at home, and driven in 73 runners. He's also scored 56 times, a four year best. Solid season, but not what was expected.
Drew Stubbs has been... really good this year, hasn't he? The slash line, especially the batting average, really works (.290/.340/.479). He's also hit 14 homers and stolen 19 bases... in just 376 at-bats. This is the Stubbs we all remember. An extremely useful piece he has been. Meanwhile, Justin Morneau has hit .392 over his last 28 at-bats to surge past Josh Harrison for the NL batting lead (by two points).
Justin Turner has a horrible beard. He's also had one hell of a season for the Dodgers, capped by his two run effort Tuesday night. Through 282 at-bats he's hit .333 with a .397 OBP. He's gone deep seven times, scored 45 runs, and driven in 41. He's even tossed in six steals. Oh, he's also played 15 games at first, 12 at second, 18 at shortstop and 23 at third to qualify all over the diamond. He's been a stupendous NL-only option.
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DFS PLAYBOOK
Batter Versus Pitcher
Daily Projections – For every single day of the season.
* NOTE: Players are listed in alphabetical order for the sake of making them easily sortable/findable. The matchups are also generated based on Batter vs. Pitcher data.
DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
Jose Abreu is mashing .583 with two homers in 12 at-bats against Justin Verlander. Adam Eaton is 5-for-11 (.455).
Robinson Cano, predictably, kills Mark Buehrle batting .346 with three homers and 11 RBIs in 26 at-bats. Austin Jackson is batting .429 in 21 at-bats.
Stephen Drew has hit .333 with three RBIs in 18 at-bats against Bud Norris.
Adrian Gonzalez is batting .417-2-5 over 24 at-bats against the struggling Tim Hudson.
Bryce Harper has two homers, four RBIs, and a .375 batting average against Dillon Gee.
A.J. Pierzynski has only eight at-bats against Jake Arrieta but he has six hits including two homers.
Victor Martinez has obliterated Chris Sale, and no one does that. He's hit .536 with three homers and six RBIs in 15 at-bats.
Casey McGehee is hitting .353-1-5 in 17 at-bats against Kyle Kendrick.
DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day
Miguel Cabrera has not hit Chris Sale. In 27 at-bats he's struck out eight times and hit .222. He does have two solo homers.
Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday are both 0-for-9 against Jake Arrieta.
Todd Frazier is batting .143 in 21 at-bats against Kyle Lohse. Ryan Ludwick is at .118 in 34 at-bats.
Curtis Granderson is 3-for-22 with seven strikeouts against Gio Gonzalez.
Howie Kendrick has hit .200 with no RBIs in 20 at-bats against Jon Lester. Gordon Beckham is batting .095 in 21 at-bats and Mike Trout is 1-for-9.
Paul Konerko has 58 fruitless at-bats against Justin Verlander. He's batting .172 with a .560 OPS. Alexei Ramirez has a .584 OPS over 73 plate appearances.
Jed Lowrie has 10 hitless at-bats against Hector Santiago. Josh Donaldson is 1-for-11 with four strikeouts.
David Murphy has no success against Jason Vargas. He's 2-for-24.
David Ortiz has one single in 10 at-bats against Jake Odorizzi.
Buster Posey is batting .111 against Clayton Kershaw in 56 at-bats. Hunter Pence is worse at .082 in 49 at-bats. The duo has knocked in six runners.
Anthony Rendon is batting .217 in 23 at-bats against Dillon Gee. Denard Span is batting .214 in 28 at-bats. Danny Espinosa is 1-for-13.
Cody Ross is 2-for-14 against Phil Hughes.
MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target
Jake Arrieta makes his last start of the year at home against the Cardinals. Coming off a one hit, complete game shutout, 
Arrieta has allowed three runs in his last three starts. He's also sporting a 1.60 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in 11 home starts.
Scott Feldman pitches on the road against the Rangers. He's allowed five runs in his last five outings, and he's tossed 6-straight quality starts up there lowering his ERA from 4.45 to 3.82 in the process. The last time he faced the Rangers was August 30th and he pitched a complete game shutout.
Clayton Kershaw at home against the Giants. Duh.
Julio Teheran has lost his last four outings. He’s allowed a total of eight earned runs in that time. He's posted a 2.04 ERA and 0.95 WHIP in 15 home starts though that has only led to five wins. In three career outings against the Pirates he's posted a 2.40 ERA and 0.93 WHIP.
MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid
Trevor Bauer has been solid at home this year with a 3.43 ERA and 1.27 WHIP, but he's also allowed four homers in his last three outings and has failed to go 6.1 innings in six of his last seven outings. He faces the Royals.
Tim Hudson on the road against the Dodgers. He last won on August 22nd and his last three outings, all loses, have resulted in 13 runs in 11.1 innings (the September 13th outing was a six run beating against the Dodgers in which he recorded three outs).
Phil Hughes is on the cusp of setting an all-time K/BB record. However he's posted a 4.50 ERA at home this season and he's allowed a homer in 4-straight starts. He's also permitted nine runs over his last 14 innings, and really, doesn’t it just seem like he's due a bad effort in his last start following his out of nowhere season?
Jake Odorizzi faces the Red Sox in Fenway. Though he held the Red Sox to one hit over seven innings back on August 30th he's been awful this year on the road: 6.06 ERA, 1.55 WHIP in 13 starts and Fenway isn't a nice place to pitch.
Hector Santiago faces the Athletics in Oakland. He's lost his last two outings allowing 10 runs while recording nine outs. Oh, and the last time he went six innings was back on August 17th. No more needs to be written, does it?
Make sure you tune in to the Drive at 7 PM EDT, Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius210, XM87), to hear Ray Flowers pontificate about the world of sports.