The Cleveland Guardians and the Detroit Tigers meet Sunday in MLB action from Comerica Park. This will be the final game of the 2023 regular season. The Guardians took the series opener Friday by two runs, then in game two the Tigers evened it up with a blowout win. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Cleveland Guardians 

The Guardians scored all of their runs over the first three innings on Friday in the opener of this set, eventually powering out a 7-5 win. In the Saturday game two, Cleveland couldn’t get much of anything going at the plate in an 8-0 shutout defeat. Jose Ramirez and Myles Straw each had two hits, though. 

For Sunday’s finale the Guardians will send out Lucas Giolito in the start. Over his 32 starts this year Giolito is 8-14 with a 4.77 ERA and 200 Ks in 179.1 innings. Giolito is 0-2 with a 4.63 ERA in his last two games. 

Cleveland Guardians Team Facts

The Guardians have won each of their last five games as underdogs against American League opponents following a road loss.
The Guardians have covered the run line in each of their last nine games as underdogs following a road loss.
The Guardians have led after 7 innings in five of their last six games as underdogs.
The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Guardians’ last five games.
The Guardians have led after 5 innings in each of their last five Sunday games as road underdogs.

Detroit Tigers 

Over on the Detroit side, they posted 13 team hits (and gave up 13) in the Friday opener of this series. Spencer Torkelson and Zach McKinstry (two RBI) each homered in the loss. On Saturday the Tigers posted five runs in the seventh inning during the blowout win. Detroit got two RBI from Andy Ibanez (three hits; two runs), Akil Baddoo (three walks) and Carson Kelly along the way. 

Eduardo Rodriguez will take the mound for the Tigers in the Sunday finale. So far in 25 starts Rodriguez is 12-9 with a 3.40 ERA and 138 strikeouts over 145.2 innings. Rodriguez is 4-3 with a 4.12 ERA in his last seven starts. 

Detroit Tigers Team Facts

The Tigers have won each of their last 10 day games against AL Central opponents.
The Tigers have covered the run line in each of their last six day games against the Guardians following a win.
The Tigers have led after 5 innings in each of their last four day games against the Guardians.
The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Tigers’ last 10 games as home favorites against AL Central opponents.
The Tigers have led after 7 innings in each of their last 13 day games against AL Central opponents.

Matchup/League Facts

The Detroit Tigers rank 29th in the league for slugging percentage this season (.381).
The Detroit Tigers rank 28th in the league for runs scored this season (656).
The Cleveland Guardians rank 30th in the league for home runs this season (123).
The Cleveland Guardians rank 1st in the league for strikeouts against this season (1134).

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’ll probably just stay with the Guardians here. Also probably not touching it, as both starters could use a good outing—not to mention the bad game for Cleveland on Saturday. Giolito has eight earned over his last 8.2 innings, going 0-1 in that time. As for Rodriguez, he posted a nice outing versus Oakland in his last start (7.0 innings; zero earned) but prior to that he had nine earned in a span of 8.1 frames. In the Saturday game two, the Guardians managed eight team hits but couldn’t cash in on anything. Cleveland had four or more runs in three straight games prior to that however, so I like the offense to go out with a bang in the season finale.