The Yankees’ Offense Should Excel Over The Weekend
The Yankees vs Guardians Series Odds Favor New York
The New York Yankees will take on the Cleveland Guardians in a three-game series over the weekend. The Yankees have started the season 10-3 and have exceeded expectations.
The Yankees were projected to be really good in the AL baseball standings. But once Gerrit Cole was thrown on the shelf for the first half of the season, many people had their doubts. People are no longer doubting.
Meanwhile, the Guardians are 9-3, despite the news that Shane Bieber will be done for the season. Cleveland has pitched well and has gotten some timely hitting. It’s easy to see that the Guardians are also AL playoff contenders this year. They might not have any significant MLB league leaders, but they’ll compete.
Check out our full Yankees vs Guardians series odds preview for the weekend-long series between these two terrific AL teams.
New York Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians 
Day/Time:
Location: Progressive Field, Cleveland, OH
Streaming: Bally Sports Great Lakes, YES
The Naylor’s Hit Homers On National Siblings Day
In Wednesday’s game against the White Sox, the Cleveland bros, Josh and Bo Naylor, hit home runs in the same inning on National Siblings Day. Both home runs were needed after the Guardians only won the game by one run, 7-6.
While this isn’t the first time the Naylor’s have done this, it was the first on National Siblings Day, which makes it even more fun.
Anthony Volpe’s Staying In The Leadoff Spot
The Yankees don’t want to put too much pressure on Anthony Volpe. Therefore, this season, the Yankees decided to put Volpe in the middle of the batting order. But now that he’s been having some great at-bats and is starting to really come around after an up-and-down season last year.
Volpe is currently hitting a .372/.460/.581 slash line and has a 1.041 OPS with two home runs and six RBIs. In Wednesday’s game against the Marlins, Volpe finally got to bat leadoff. He got on base three out of the five at-bats in the game and still excelled.
While Aaron Boone didn’t want to commit to Volpe always being the leadoff, it sounds like he’ll be in that spot for this upcoming series and potentially beyond that.
Yankees vs Guardians Series Odds For Game 1: ML: Yankees -127, O/U 9 +105/-125.
âš¾ Game 1 âš¾
- Friday, 7:10 pm ET
- Clarke Schmidt vs. Carlos Carrasco
The Yankees will give Clarke Schmidt the ball for Game 1 of this series. In two starts, Schmidt has a 4.66 ERA with just nine strikeouts. He’s also watched righties hit a .280 ISO and wOBA of .472 with just 31.8% of grounders to begin the season.
Schmidt has struggled to earn strikeouts against righties. Instead, he’s allowed 45.5% of line drives to the 29 righties he’s faced. That wasn’t an issue last year, so we’ll see if this trend continues heading into this game.
Cleveland has only three players hitting an ISO of at least .185 against righties since last season.
The Guardians will counter with Carlos Carrasco. He only earned 15.8% of strikeouts last season but has added 26.5% this year. That’s likely going to come down over time. Carrasco has also allowed a .286 ISO and wOBA of .417 to 17 lefties and struggled severely against righties last year.
The Yankees’ lineup against righties will feature the most power from Juan Soto and Juan Soto. Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo also succeeded against righties last year and struck out under 15% of the time each. New York should have success against Carrasco in Game 1.
After looking at the Yankees vs Guardians series odds for Game 1, we’ll take the Yankees -127 here.
âš¾ Game 2 âš¾
- Saturday 6:10 pm ET
- Luis Gil vs. Triston McKenzie
Luis Gil will get the call in the second game of the series. Gil has looked sensational to begin the year. He doesn’t have a win this season, but he’s still got a 3.00 ERA to start the year. Opponents have hit just a .034 ISO and OBA of .226, which is incredibly good. He’s just getting in trouble with his 18.4% walk rate. He’ll have a really good season if he can get his control in order.
The Guardians will send out Triston McKenzie. He came into the league a few years ago as a bonafide strikeout thrower. But after throwing against 40 batters, he’s struck out just 10% and walked 15%.
Overall, Gil has had more success than McKenzie to begin the year. Plus, the Yankees’ lineup has better analytics. On the road, we’ve got the Yankees earning this game as well.
âš¾ Game 3 âš¾
- Sunday, 1:40 pm ET
- Nestor Cortes vs. Logan Allen
Nestor Cortes will get the finale of the series. The left-hander has a 1-1 record with a 3.50 ERA this season. He’s thrown three starts to begin the year and has held teams to a .074 ISO and wOBA of .251. However, his strikeout rate has dipped to 18.1% this season. He’s also allowed 36.4% of fly balls and has induced just 30.9% of ground balls.
That was a trend last season as well. Therefore, if Cortes doesn’t earn a heavy amount of strikeouts, damage could be done to Cortes.
While the top of the Guardians’ lineup has limited strikeouts, the projected lineup has still hit a below-average ISO against lefties.
Against Cortes will be Logan Allen, making it a lefty-lefty matchup for Game 3. Logan Allen‘s strikeout rate has dropped from last year. He’s also been worse against righties to start the season, allowing a .226 ISO and wOBA of .369 to 57 righties.
Still, you’d have to figure Allen will improve against righties, as he’s added 60.5% of ground balls with only 14% of fly balls to righties.
The Yankees typically have more potential against lefties. The projected lineup has hit a .200 ISO and wOBA of .361, with just 18.9% of strikeouts since last season.
Anthony Volpe, Soto, Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Torres are all massive bats against lefties. But the total for this game might be a tad too high.
Allen should be better, and Cortes should add a solid amount of strikeouts to help keep this game under the total. That would be one of our MLB best bets on Sunday.
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