The Angels hammered Sonny Gray and the A’s Wednesday

The playoff races weigh heavily on the end of the fantasy baseball season and each of the five games featured in today’s update include teams in playoff races. Some teams that drift out of the playoff race may be hesistant to use their players through the end of the season, so fantasy owners need to hope that a slide for a contender does not lead to losing a top player. The best pitcher in baseball facing his team’s top rival will open this daily update for September 3, 2015.

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Recap

Clayton Kershaw tops another milestone in win over Giants
Kershaw topped 250 strikeouts for the first time in his career, striking out 15 batters in a complete game, allowing one run on six hits to the Giants. Kershaw also only walked one batter on Wednesday and has a 1.01 ERA, 0.68 WHIP, and 13.00 K:BB ratio since the All-Star break, allowing more than one run just once in his last 12 starts. Chase Utley was 1-for-4 with a home run, his second straight game with an extra-base hit. Utley has a .194 batting average with two RBI and five extra-base hits with the Dodgers with only one multi-hit game since moving to Los Angeles. Carl Crawford finished 2-for-3 with a double and a RBI in the Dodgers 2-1 win. Crawford has two multi-hit games in his last three games, but yesterday’s double was first extra-base hit since August 12.

Buster Posey was 3-for-4 against Los Angeles, seeing his seasonal batting average jump to .325. Posey only has 10 extra-base hits in the second half, but has a .346 batting average since the All-Star break and has scored 17 runs and has 22 RBI.

Bottom of the lineup leads Yankees
Stephen Drew finished 3-for-4 with a double, home run, two runs scored, and three RBI in the Yankees’ 13-8 win over Boston. Drew has been outstanding over the last four games, 9-for-12 with four extra-base hits and nine RBI, and has a .275 batting average since the All-Star break. Didi Gregorius has provided a spark at the bottom of the Yankees’ lineup, finishing 2-for-4 with a home run, RBI, run scored, and three runs scored on Wednesday. Gregorius has a batting average for the season after posting a .331 batting average in the second half and the Yankees’ shortstop has scored eight runs and has 12 RBI in his last seven games. Greg Bird clubbed his third home run of his brief MLB career and was 2-for-4 with a walk, two RBI, and two runs scored against Boston. Bird has a .762 OPS in his first 63 at-bats and has gotten on base in seven of his last 10 games.

Xander Bogaerts was 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBI for the Red Sox and the 22-year-old has five multi-hit games in his last seven games. Bogaerts has a .344 batting average since the All-Star break, but fantasy owners will ask for more than 34 extra-base hits from the Red Sox shortstop.

Reds halt Cubs’ playoff pursuit
Joey Votto hit a three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning, providing the difference in a 7-4 Reds win, and was 2-for-5 with two runs scored. Votto has a 1.025 OPS and 58 extra-base hits this season, making him the second-ranked 1B in fantasy baseball and has a .399 batting average in the second half. Brandon Phillips was 3-for-5 on Wednesday and has hits in nine of his last 10 games, including four multi-hit games. Phillips has a .311 batting average in the second half after posting a .275 batting average in the first half and has 10 home runs and 20 stolen bases this season. Raisel Iglesias has quickly become one of the best pitchers in the second half, allowing two runs on three hits in seven innings against Chicago, and struck out 10 batters in no-decision. Iglesias has now struck out 10 or more batters in each of his last three starts and has a 2.77 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in the second half.

Kris Bryant was 1-for-4 with a two-run home run that tied the game in the 8th inning. Bryant now has 22 home runs this season and a .268 batting average in the second half, including hits in nine of his last 10 games.

Angels jump all over Sonny Gray
Albert Pujols became the fourth player in MLB history with 35 or more home runs in 10 seasons, finishing 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBI. He now has 80 RBI this season, after recording a RBI in each of the last three games, and he has two multi-hit games in his last three games. Kole Calhoun was 3-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored in the Angels’ 9-4 win over Oakland. Calhoun has back-to-back three hit games, and has three multi-hit games in his last four games, a positive sign after the 27-year-old only had two hits in his previous six games. Andrew Heaney allowed three runs on seven hits in seven innings to move his record to 6-2 for the season. Heaney had his third start without a walk, and struck out six batters, moving his K:BB ratio to 4.00 and WHIP to 1.12.

Gray allowed six runs on eight hits in five innings in a no-decision, allowing three or more runs for the first time in seven starts. Gray now has a 3.00 ERA in the second half, after posting a 2.04 ERA in the first half, but only has a 2-3 record and has struck out more than five batters in two of nine starts.

Tommy Milone keeps Twins alive
Milone pitched seven innings for the first time in the second half, holding the White Sox to only three hits while striking out seven batters and not allowing a walk. Milone has a 1.22 WHIP and 3.60 ERA over 105 innings this season, but has allowed three or more runs in five of his seven starts in the second half. Miguel Sano clubbed his 15th home run of the season and has a 1.025 OPS in 179 at-bats this season and his eligibility at SS makes him a vital piece of a fantasy baseball roster. Sano has hits in eight of his last 10 games and has hit a home run in three straight games while increasing his extra-base hit total to 28 and second half batting average to .275. Trevor Plouffe was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI for the Twins. Plouffe has an RBI in two consecutive games and has 27 RBI in the second half; even with a .212 batting average since the All-Star break, Plouffe has 15 extra-base hits in the second half and 51 extra-base hits for the season.

Jose Abreu had one of the White Sox three hits and now has hits in eight of his last 10 games. Abreu has five extra-base hits and six RBI over his past 10 games and has a .857 OPS and 10 home runs since the All-Star break.

What to watch for

The best matchup for Thursday sees NL Central foes in Francisco Liriano and Taylor Jungmann facing off. Liriano is 4-0 in the second half, but his 1.56 WHIP and 4.15 ERA since the All-Star break are considerably higher than the 1.03 WHIP and 2.98 ERA he had before the All-Star break. Jungmann is an under the radar star for the Brewers, posting a 2.48 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 90 2/3 innings this season, posting a quality start in nine of his 15 starts for Milwaukee. Edinson Volquez, Jordan Zimmermann, and Jeff Samardzija will also pitch today.

Chris Zolli is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Chris, check out his archive and follow him @thezman2010.