New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Guardians Best Bet: Can Cleveland Avoid the Sweep?

New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Guardians Best Bet: Can Cleveland Avoid the Sweep?

Yankees vs. Guardians Start Time and Where to Watch

• Date: April 24, 2022
• Game Time: 1:35 pm ET
• Where to Watch: YES/MLB.TV

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Yankees vs. Guardians Line Movement

New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Guardians Prediction

The Yankees and Guardians will close out a three-game series tonight in Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees took the first two after a walk-off comeback win yesterday. Oscar Mercado and Myles Straw will probably be pretty fired up for this contest, considering how yesterday's ended.

After left-fielder Steven Kwan got injured trying to field a ball against the fence in the bottom of the ninth, fans in the front rows in left field seemed to be taunting Kwan, which prompted Straw to climb the fence and say some things to the fans, defending his teammate. On the ensuing play, the Gelyber Torres hit the walk-off winner, and fans started throwing cans of beer and water bottles at Mercado and the other Guardians players that ran over. It was a bad scene for the fans there, but I'm sure it has fired up the Guardians to come into Yankee stadium and take this game to avoid the sweep.

It will be Aaron Civale taking the mound for the Guardians today. The 26-year-old right-hander has a 6.14 earned run average to start the year. His most recent outing was against World Series contenders in the Giants, and he went four innings with three earned runs. Civale had a successful season last year with a 12-5 record and 3.8 earned run average, so I expect his numbers to even out as he settles into the season.

Civale has pitched well against the Yankees recently. In his last start in Yankee Stadium, he pitched six innings with zero earned runs on only four hits and just one walk. His two previous starts were good as well, going 5.1 innings with two earned runs and six innings with two runs.

Gerrit Cole will take the mound for the Yankees today, and he has really struggled to start the year. You have to wonder if what people were saying about him and the sticky stuff is true. It could be a coincidence, but there has been a significant drop-off in his performance since they started checking for the sticky stuff. This is true even against the Guardians.

Last year, Cole had two starts against the Guardians. One was before they started checking for sticky substances, and one was after. Cole went seven innings in the first meeting with only one earned run. In the second meeting (once the checks started), Cole went 5.2 innings with SEVEN earned runs. Quite a different performance. Even if it's not correlated to the checks, something seems to be off with Cole. He's not a bad pitcher, and he's had countless quality starts since the checks began, but he's also had many more starts than usual where his stuff seems to be off. He also has a 6.35 earned run average to start the season.

The Guardians have eaten right-handed starters alive to start the year. They are first in the MLB in wOBA against right-handed pitching and have a .808 OPS against righties. They're batting .288 against righties and only .228 against lefties. The Guardian's offense is second in runs scored per game at 5.31. After scoring five combined runs over the first two games of the series, I expect an offensive bounce back against a pitcher they have seen before and have also crushed before. I am taking the run line, though, to save a loss if the Yankees happen to win on another walk-off run. Take the Guardians today to avoid the sweep and get back in their offensive rhythm.

Yankees vs. Guardians Pick

• Guardians +1.5 (-114) (Bet $114 to Win $100)