New York Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians ALDS Game 2 Picks, Predictions and Odds

New York Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians Game 2 Preview

WagerTalk MLB handicapper Andy Lang offers his analysis of Friday’s New York Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians Game 2 clash at Yankee Stadium. Gerrit Cole took care of business in Game 1 pitching 6.1 innings allowing only one run and striking out eight.

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Friday, October 14	MLB Betting Notes, Courtesy of Caesars
Moneyline:	New York Yankees -140 vs Cleveland Guardians +118
Runline:	Yankees -1.5 (+165) / Guardians +1.5 (-185)
Total:	6.5 Runs (Over -100 / Under -120)
Game Time:	1:07pm ET / 10:07am PT
Where:	Yankee Stadium in Bronx, NY
TV:	TBS

New York Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians Game 2 Analysis

The Cleveland Guardians will be looking to even up their American League Divisional Series on the road at Yankee Stadium after losing Game One behind a strong outing from Gerrit Cole.

The Yankees dominated the head-to-head regular season series 5-1. The Guardians will send their ace Shane Bieber to the mound while New York counters with the southpaw Nestor Cortes.

Guardians Need Bats To Heat Up

The Cleveland Guardians are having some major issues scoring in the playoffs with a total of only four runs in three games. Three runs were enough for two victories against the Tampa Bay Rays who only managed only one run in two games.

One run wasn’t nearly enough as they lost 4-1 against the New York Yankees on Tuesday. Leadoff man Steven Kwan went 2 for 4 with a solo-blast and Jose Ramirez went 2 for 3 with a double. It wasn’t a particularly sharp outing by Cal Quantrill who allowed four runs on four hits across only five innings of work.

Still the Guardians staff has been brilliant in the post-season with a 1.13 ERA, 0.72 WHIP and 36 strikeouts across 32 innings of work. Shane Bieber was a big contributor to those numbers with 7.2 innings of one run baseball against the Rays in Game One of their Wild-card series.

Bieber finished the regular season with a 13-8 record, 2.88 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 198 strikeouts across 200 innings of work.

Yanks Start Post-Season Off To Strong Start

The New York Yankees jumped out to a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five series against Cleveland Guardians after winning 4-1 on Tuesday. Gerrit Cole was spot on with 6.1 innings of one run baseball while striking out eight and allowing only four hits and a walk.

Anthony Rizzo hit a two run bomb in the 6th inning to put the game out of reach. Harrison Bader also hit a solo-blast.

This Bronx Bombers lineup has been top five across the board statistically wire-to-wire this season. The Yanks send the lefty Nestor Cortes to the bump on Thursday evening.

Cortes is 12-4 on the season with a 2.44 ERA, 0.92 WHIP and 163 strikeouts across 158.1 innings pitched. He faced the Guardians back in April and held them to two runs across 6.1 innings.

New York Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians Game 2 Prediction

The New York Yankees are favored with a money line set at -140 while the Cleveland Guardians sit at +120 with a total of 6. This game has all the makings of another low scoring game with Guardians involved and Bieber on the mound.

The Guardians have scored only four runs in 32 innings of playoff baseball. These runs haven’t come in bunches as they came on three home runs. This isn’t sustainable considering the Guardians ranked 29th in home runs this season only in front of the horrendous Detroit Tigers.

Nestor Cortes was one of the most dominant pitchers at home during the regular season with a 1.95 ERA, 0.82 WHIP and .161 OBA across 15 starts at Yankee Stadium. The Guardians struggled against left-handed pitching this season as they ranked 24th OBP and 28th in OPS.

They were only able to score two runs in 7.1 innings against southpaw Shane McClanahan in their Wild-card game last week. Bieber obviously has the talent to shut down any lineup but the Yankees lineup still scares me a bit in the Bronx.

Instead let’s isolate this lifeless Guardians lineup against a lefty that dominates at home. The New York pen will also be fully rested after the day off. Let’s take the +100 odds on the Guardians team total under 2.5. They have only scored four runs in their last three games after all.

Prediction: Cleveland Guardians Team Total Under 2.5 +100

WagerTalk Live Odds Screen

WagerTalk’s Live Odds Screen features up-to-the-minute lines from a variety of offshore and domestic sports books. Track the MLB playoff moneylines, run lines and betting percentages for all of this weekend’s baseball games, including this New York Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians showdown, from your desktop or phone.

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Meet the Author

Andy Lang has lived in Indianapolis his whole life, and like most people from the Hoosier State, he became fascinated with motor sports. That interest in motor sports turned into a desire to make money off the sport through fantasy contests and sports betting. Like most, he took his lumps when he first got started, but now he is one of the most respected NASCAR bettors in the industry. Andy has expanded that sports betting experience to become profitable in a number of other sports, transforming this interest from a side hobby to a major source of income.

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