The Cleveland Guardians and the New York Yankees meet Monday in MLB playoffs action from Yankee Stadium. This will be Game 1 in a best-of-seven ALCS series. Here’s a NY Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians Prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Yankees vs Guardians pick.
Cleveland Guardians Betting Preview
The Guardians played a close Division Series versus the Detroit Tigers, but eventually came out on top. Cleveland took a 7-0 win in the opener, then fell 3-0 in the next pair. After a 5-4 win in Game 4, the Guardians took the decisive game with a 7-3 victory on Saturday.
Cleveland will send out Alex Cobb in the starter role for Game 1. This year Cobb went 2-1 with a 2.76 ERA in three starts. Cobb is 1-1 with a 2.45 career ERA in three postseason starts.
New York Yankees Betting Preview
Over on the Yankees’ side, they earned a bye to the Division Series of the playoffs and took on the Kansas City Royals. New York eked out a victory 6-5 in the opener, then lost 4-2 in Game 2. The Yankees would take victories in both road games however, winning 3-2 on Wednesday and 3-1 the next day to finish off the series three games to one.
For the starter gig on Monday, New York Carlos Rodon. This year Rodon went 16-9 with a 3.96 ERA in 32 starts. Rodon is 0-2 with a 11.37 ERA in three postseason games (two starts) over his career.
Total Runs Facts
- Seven of the Guardians’ last eight games as road underdogs have gone UNDER the total runs line.
- Five of the Yankees’ last six playoff games against AL Central opponents have gone UNDER the total runs line.
- The ‘Inning 1 OVER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Guardians’ last five night games.
- The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Yankees’ last four games as home favorites against AL Central opponents.
New York Yankees Player Prop Facts
- Aaron Judge has hit at least one home run in each of his last four home appearances against the Guardians.
- Anthony Volpe has recorded a Double in each of the Yankees’ last four games against the Guardians.
- Anthony Rizzo has recorded at least one hit in each of his last nine appearances against the Guardians after not playing the previous day.
- Aaron Judge has recorded at least one RBI in each of his last four home appearances against the Guardians.
- DJ LeMahieu has recorded at least one total base in each of his last nine appearances in night playoff games.
- DJ LeMahieu has recorded at least one Single in 11 of his last 12 home appearances against the Guardians.
- Juan Soto has scored at least one run in each of his eight previous appearances with his team as a home favorite against the Guardians.
- Aaron Judge ranks 1st in the league in Home Runs (58) this season.
Cleveland Guardians Player Prop Facts
- Jose Ramirez has hit a home run in three of the Guardians’ last four night games against opponents that held a winning record.
- Lane Thomas has recorded at least one RBI in four of the Guardians’ last five road games against AL opponents.
- Steven Kwan has scored at least one run in each of the Guardians’ last four night playoff games.
- Steven Kwan has recorded at least one Single in each of the Guardians’ last seven playoff games as underdogs.
- Steven Kwan has recorded at least one total base in each of the Guardians’ last 10 playoff games.
- Steven Kwan has recorded a hit in each of the Guardians’ last 10 playoff games.
- Jose Ramirez ranks T5th in the league in Home Runs (39) this season.
Matchup/League Facts
- The New York Yankees rank 1st in the league for home runs this season (237).
- The New York Yankees rank 1st in the league for walks this season (672).
- The Cleveland Guardians rank 2nd in the league for hits allowed this season (1224).
- The Cleveland Guardians rank 3rd in the league for ERA this season (3.61).
NY Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians Prediction
I might take a stab on the Guardians here. Cleveland had a couple of rough outings in their two losses to the Tigers during the Division Series. In games two and three, the Guardians scored exactly zero runs and were on the verge of elimination by Thursday. To their credit, Cleveland rallied to score a combined 12 runs over the last two games, giving them 19 total in the three victories.
As for the Yankees, their big-swinging offense was fairly muted over the final three outings of their Division Series. New York scored eight runs over the final three games, though some of the contributions were heftier than others (such as Giancarlo Stanton’s homer, two RBI and three hits in the Game 3 win). All things considered though, this should be a fun series and I could easily see it going down to the wire. I think it’s worth trying Cleveland in the opener coming off their big win Saturday.