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MLB Best Bets Today: Cleveland Guardians vs. New York Yankees
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The New York Yankees take on the Cleveland Guardians in the third game of this seven-game series. The Yankees won both of the first two games at home before this series traveled to Cleveland for Game 3. The Yankees won the first game 5-2 behind a dominant performance by Carlos Rodon. He pitched extremely well and the Yankees' bullpen came in to finish the game off. Alex Cobb was the losing pitcher in that game for the Guardians although he failed to make it through three innings. Stephen Vogt then brought Joey Cantillo in for his first career postseason appearance, which put the nail in the coffin for the Guardians. Cantillo only gave up one run but he walked three batters. He hadn't been used the entire postseason before that. Not only did he not perform, but it felt like the Guardians gave up on that game by putting him in. The rest of the bullpen only allowed one run (a homer) the entire rest of the game.
The second game was a lot of the same as Gerrit Cole pitched well, although he didn't have his best game ever allowing two runs in 4.1 innings pitched. However, the Yankees' bullpen stepped up to the plate again and ended up allowing just one run the rest of the game, and they won 6-3. That score was aided by a couple of crucial errors early in the game by the Guardians. One was a routine fly ball on the infield that Brayan Rocchio just missed. allowing a run to score early, but most importantly, it gave the Yankees all the momentum. The Yankees went up 3-0 in that game after two innings and never looked back. Tanner Bibee wasn't able to do his part either as he allowed two earned runs and three runs overall in just 1.1 innings. The Guardians' bullpen was again stuck with covering almost the entire game just to give them a chance, but the bats went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base. I will say Vogt worries me. He has been getting out-managed all postseason and it has been coming back to bite them. He had some questionable bullpen decisions in Game 1, mainly with using Cantillo. Earlier in the postseason he pinch hit for two of his players very early, including one of his players before he even had an at-bat against the Tigers after they changed pitchers in the second inning. He is a rookie manager and it shows.
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Clarke Schmidt has made one start so far this postseason, allowing two runs in 4.2 innings on the road to Kansas City, so he already knows what a road playoff crowd feels like. He had a very good regular season, he just had an injury that took him out for a while. He likely won't go more than five innings in this game, especially with how well the Yankees' bullpen has been pitching.
Matthew Boyd is making his third start this postseason already. He didn't allow a run in either of his first two postseason games, although he only pitched two innings in his most recent game. He did have five strikeouts, though, so clearly he had nasty stuff. He didn't allow a run in 4.2 innings pitched to the Tigers. The Guardians can't go down 3-0 in this series. This is a must-win game for them, so I think they won't hesitate to go to their strength in their bullpen early. Emmanuel Clase hasn't even pitched yet this series, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if he pitches two innings, even if the Guardians are losing. That's why I think this game will also be low scoring. The Yankees' bullpen has been pitching very well all postseason long. It should be in the mid-50s around game time with shadows to worry about during the day game, too.
Best MLB Bet Today
Guardians ML (+102 at FanDuel Sportsbook)
