I appreciate the 2-3-2 nature of the World Series and the intent to get the Fall Classic done in reasonable time. That means Wednesday we get Game 5, the third day in a row with a game. This will not be the last game of the season. Thanks to the Blue Jays' Game 4 win, this series will go at least six games and head back to Toronto.
The single-game logistics on FanDuel remain the same. You get $60,000 in salary for six players. The MVP earns 1.5 times the points at 1.5 times the salary. Here is the Game 5 lineup I landed on.
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MVP
Vladimir Guerrero, TOR at LAD ($18,300): I will note that Game 5 is Trey Yesavage versus Blake Snell, aka a rematch of Game 1. In the end, I opted to have the guy who has been the best hitter this postseason as my MVP, and no, I haven't forgotten about Shohei Ohtani. Vladito has hit .419 and slugged .806 with seven homers. Snell has been strong this postseason, but Game 1 of the Series was his worst offering of the playoffs. Mostly Guerrero is a righty facing a lefty, and why wouldn't I make the best hitter this fall my MVP in that scenario?
Utility
Will Smith, LAD vs. TOR ($9,600): You may have heard, possibly from me writing DFS articles for this postseason, that Yeasavage's splitter bothers lefties, but righties hit him well. I have no Dodgers southpaws in the mix, but I have right-handed Dodgers. Smith's power has been late to arrive after injury, but this season he had a .924 OPS against righties and a .971 OPS at home.
Mookie Betts, LAD vs. TOR ($9,000): With Betts at this point, it is largely about his reputation and history. He does have unremarkable postseason numbers in 2025, which does hit one over the head with the sample-size issues of late October. Betts is a righty, a future Hall of Famer, and he slugged .461 at home this year. You only have two team's worth of players to select from. I'm still down to give him a shot.
Alejandro Kirk, TOR at. LAD ($8,400): Kirk has been almost as good as Guerrero in terms of power, but the outlay for Kirk is decidedly less. He never strikes out, and he's slugged .542 this postseason. Kirk is a righty, and Snell is a lefty. Kirk has five homers in the playoffs, and he will be out there not striking out.
Teoscar Hernandez, LAD vs. TOR ($8,000): Even Joe Davis has been riffing on Hernandez's all-or-nothing nature in this series. Of course, he's the fifth of six selections for this lineup. That's not a bad level at which to get into all-or-nothing players. Hernandez hit 25 homers this season and has added five in the postseason. This is a matter of rostering a guy who has a decent chance of hitting a home run, but that's the nature of the beast this time of the year.
Addison Barger, TOR at LAD ($5,800): I left literally hundreds of dollars of salary on the table to roster Barger, but strategically that's a good way to differentiate your lineup in a larger field. Lefty starter Snell will complicate things, but I don't care. We all likely remember Game 1, when Barger came in post-Snell to hit a grand slam. He's slashed .327/.389/.551 this postseason and slugged .480 against righties this season. To round out my roster, I'd rather swing for the fences.
