Cleveland Guardians vs New York Yankees Prediction: Will Gerrit Cole Lead the Yankees to a Big Victory?
Cleveland Guardians vs New York Yankees Prediction: Will Gerrit Cole Lead the Yankees to a Big Victory?
Mother Nature postponed the series opener between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians, so last night's rainout will be made up as part of a doubleheader today.
The Yankees have been the talk of Major League Baseball for the entire season as they are on a historic pace with a 56-21 record through the first 77 games. That start includes a league-best 22-6 record in June, but the Guardians have gone a much quieter 20-10 in their previous 30 games. More people will surely take notice if the Guardians win this series against the Yankees this weekend.
Is Cleveland ready to defend its home turf and legitimize this recent hot stretch for those naysayers still out there? Or will New York make the Guardians its latest victim on the path to chasing the all-time wins record?
Read on for our prediction, best play, and odds for Saturday's opening game of the doubleheader between the Yankees and Guardians.
Guardians vs Yankees Start Time, Where to Watch, and Odds
Date: July 2, 2022
Game Time: 12:10 pm ET
Where To Watch: MLB.TV
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Guardians vs Yankees Line Movement
Cleveland Guardians vs New York Yankees Prediction
Yankees ace Gerrit Cole (6-2, 2.99) finished second in the Cy Young voting last year, but through 15 starts this year, his winning percentage, ERA, WHIP, H/9, and HR/9 rates are all better than one year ago. Since getting shellacked for seven runs in 2.1 innings four starts ago against the Twins, Cole has allowed just two earned runs in his last 20.1 innings while striking out 27 batters in that span.
Cole faces a Guardians lineup that ranked 24th in June with a 92 wRC+ and was 23rd with a .374 team slugging percentage. In addition, current Guardians have a combined poor .524 OPS in their careers against the dominant righty.
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Cleveland was set to oppose Cole with Aaron Civale yesterday, but they moved the more established starting pitcher to start the second leg of the doubleheader and instead send relative unknown Kirk McCarty (0-1, 10.29) to the mound. McCarty has appeared in just two games this year (one since April 24th) and allowed a whopping five home runs in his seven innings of work. That spells doom against a Yankees lineup that leads MLB with 127 home runs and just set the all-time record for dingers in June.
By sending McCarty to oppose Cole instead of Civale, it looks like Cleveland is punting this game and is more willing to fight another day in the second leg of the doubleheader. Gerrit Cole is looking for his fourth consecutive quality start, and the Guardians simply do not have the offense to keep up with a pitcher the caliber of Cole in this game. For our wager, we are eschewing the steep -1.5 runline (-180) and instead of backing the alternate spread that pays much better odds.
Cleveland Guardians vs New York Yankees Pick
PICK: New York Yankees -3.5 Alternate Runline (+120) (Bet $100 to win $120)
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