Minnesota Twins (19-14) vs. Cleveland Guardians (14-18)
May 7, 2023 1:40 pm EDT
The Line: Cleveland Guardians +115 / Minnesota Twins -147; Over/Under: +8.5
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The Minnesota Twins and the Cleveland Guardians meet Sunday in MLB action from Progressive Field. This will be the finale in a three-game series over the weekend. The Twins took a shutout win on Friday, then on Saturday in game two the Guardians eked out a victory. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.
Minnesota Twins
The Twins managed just three hits in the Friday opener of this series, but that was good enough for a 2-0 win. On Saturday Minnesota out-hit Cleveland 8-5 in a tough 4-3 loss. Starter Sonny Gray finished with 5.0 innings, three earned, four hits and three walks.
Joe Ryan will take the mound for the start on Sunday. In his six starts so far Ryan is 5-0 with a 2.37 ERA and 43 Ks in 38.0 innings. In his career Ryan is 20-9 with a 3.40 ERA in 38 starts overall.
Cleveland Guardians
Over on the Guardians’ side, they also had just three hits in the Friday game, but couldn’t aid a quality start from Peyton Battenfield. On Saturday Cleveland scored three runs in the fourth on the way to the win. Starter Logan Allen had 5.2 innings, two earned, two walks and seven hits.
Cal Quantrill will be the Guardians’ starter on Saturday. Across six starts Quantrill is 1-2 with a 4.73 ERA and 17 Ks in 32.1 innings. Quantrill is 32-18 with a 3.61 career ERA over 119 games (81 starts).
The Twins are 11-4 in their last 15 versus the AL Central and 16-35 in their last 51 road games. Minnesota is 5-11 in their last 16 in game three of a series.
Meanwhile, the Guardians are 21-8 in the last 29 in game three of a series and 28-13 in the last 41 versus the AL Central. The over is 4-1 in Cleveland’s last five Sunday games.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’ll lean toward the Twins here. Ryan is on a solid run these days. He’s put up just four earned on 14 hits and three walks in 19.0 combined innings over his last three games. Ryan is 2-0 in that span. As for Quantrill, he had a bad outing late last month versus the Rockies but bounced back for a nice effort against the Yankees his last time up. On Saturday Minnesota got a reasonable effort from the bullpen and had some bad luck on the way to the loss. I like the Twins to bounce back and get a victory in the finale.
