Houston Astros vs. Cleveland Guardians Prediction:
The Cleveland Guardians enter Saturday with a chance to overtake the New York Yankees for the top overall seed in the American League Playoff. They look to keep those hopes alive as they play the Houston Astros at home on Saturday.
Justin Verlander starts for Houston. He looks to return to his form of previous seasons as he enters with a 5.55 ERA and 1.5 home runs per nine innings the season, both being career worsts for any season he’s thrown at least 12 innings.
Top MLB Resources:
The Astros 3.67 bullpen ERA ranks eighth in the league, but the Guardians 2.59 bullpen ERA ranks first with no other team in the league entering Saturday with an ERA below 3.14.
Ben Lively gets the start for the Guardians. Lively has had his own issues allowing hard contact with a 3.80 ERA and a 4.65 fielding independent while allowing 1.4 home runs per nine innings and getting only seven strikeouts per nine innings.
Fortunately for Lively, the Astros leader in home runs and RBI, Yordan Alvarez, has been ruled out of the lineup until the playoffs begin, and the Astros see a dip in production at the plate on the road.
Houston is sixth overall in the league and second in the American League in scoring at home with nearly 4.9 runs per game while their 4.3 runs per game on the road ranks 18th.
With the Guardians owning the best home winning percentage in the American League at 50-28 entering Friday, Cleveland will keep their hopes of getting the top seed alive with a win on Saturday.
MLB Pick: Cleveland Guardians -113
To find more baseball value bets and MLB picks, visit Greg Peterson’s daily MLB lines.
