Cleveland Looks To Reverse Losing Trend in Motor City

Detroit Looks To Take Another Series From Division Rival Cleveland

The Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers will meet less than a week after playing in a four-game series with this series being played in Detroit. The Guardians vs Tigers MLB predictions have the series opener approaching Pick’em status.

Detroit has won five of the nine games against the Guardians this season with six of those matchups being decided by one run. Detroit is +19 in run differential in those nine games. The Tigers had won five of their last six home series against the Guardians.

• The MLB betting lines today have Cleveland priced at -125 to win the series opener with Detroit at even money. Take a look at the +145 odds for Cleveland at -1.5 on the run line.

Cleveland is seventh at +1600 in the odds of winning the World Series with Detroit well back at +25000 in the championship odds.

Guardians vs Tigers Probable Starting Pitchers

• Monday: Tanner Bibee (Guardians); Jack Flaherty (Tigers)
• Tuesday: Gavin Williams (Guardians); TBA (Tigers)

Time to Consider the Strikeout Props

The Guardians and Tigers are set to send out two of the best pitchers in the majors at getting swings and misses in the first of the two games in this series as the teams meet for the final time during the regular season in 2024.

Detroit’s Jack Flaherty is 13th in the majors with 133 strikeouts with every pitcher ahead of him throwing more innings than the 28-year-old righty.

Flaherty has at least a strikeout per inning in five of his last six starts. Assuming he isn’t traded and still makes his start, this will be his fourth start of the season. He is 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA versus the Guardians. That could factor into the Guardians vs Tigers MLB predictions.

Bibee is just 11 strikeouts shy of his total as a rookie in 26 fewer innings. The last time he faced the Tigers, he allowed two hits and one run in five innings.

Seven of Detroit’s last 10 games went over the total.

Guardians Try to Get Back to Winning

The Guardians hope to turn things around after dropping a series to their American League Central Division rival Kansas City in the final series in June.

It has not turned out that way.

Cleveland ranks in the bottom five in the majors in batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage in July. That has resulted in an 11-12 record in July. The only good news is that division rivals Kansas City, Minnesota and Detroit have not taken advantage of Cleveland’s inability to string together victories.

That is something to remember when it comes to the Guardians vs Tigers MLB predictions. Winning the series against the National League-leading Philadelphia Phillies might be a step in the right direction.

Each of Cleveland’s last five games went under the total.

Who’s Hot

• Hunter Gaddis, Cleveland Guardians P: Gaddis has not surrendered a run in his last 20 appearances. He has allowed seven hits and struck out 21 in 19.2 innings during that stretch.
• Colt Keith, Detroit Tigers 2B: Keith is 9-for-27 with four walks, four runs, and four RBIs in his last eight games.
• Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians OF: Kwan is 8-for-27 with two walks over the last seven games as he leads MLB stat leaders with a .342 batting average.
• Shelby Miller, Detroit Tigers P: Miller has given up three hits and no runs with six strikeouts over 10 innings in his last eight games.

Who’s Not

• Josh Naylor, Cleveland Guardians 1B: Naylor is 3-for-28 with five strikeouts in his last nine games.
• Wenceel Perez, Detroit Tigers P: Perez has one hit and five strikeouts in his last 20 at-bats.
• Nick Sandlin, Cleveland Guardians P: Sandlin has surrendered 11 hits, four home runs, and nine runs in 8.1 innings in his last 11 outings.
• Joey Wentz, Detroit Tigers P: Wentz has allowed 14 hits and nine runs with 10 walks over his last 9.1 innings.

Guardians vs Tigers Injury Update

First baseman Josh Naylor is day-to-day for Cleveland while pitchers Matthew Boyd and Sam Hentges are on the injured list.

Outfielders Kerry Carpenter, Riley Greene, and Parker Meadows join pitchers Casey Mize and Reese Olson are on the injured list.

Guardians vs Tigers Betting Preview

When looking at recent MLB scores, Steven Kwan’s solo home run in the seventh inning lifted the Guardians past Philadelphia on Sunday while Detroit managed just one hit in a 5-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins.

Cleveland is just 13-12 outright as a road favorite this season with Detroit 10-9 as the home underdog. The Tigers did cover in 12 of those games while the Guardians are 10-15 against the run line when favored on the road.

Six of Detroit’s last nine home games went over the total with the total at 7.5 in the series opener. Fifteen of Detroit’s last 19 games against American League teams finished over the total. However, the last six road games for Cleveland went under the total.

Since the end of the MLB All-Star break, Cleveland is hitting just .214 and Detroit has a .207 team batting average. Over the last 10 games, only the Chicago White Sox have a lower team slugging percentage than the Guardians. Will those offensive struggles continue heading into this series?

• Cleveland is 40-20 this season as a favorite with Detroit 29-34 as the underdog.
• Detroit has seen 27 of its 51 home games land over the total.
• There is about a 20% chance of rain in the forecast for the series opener.

Both of these teams have been struggling to string together wins recently. Will it be more of the same in the next two games?

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