The Cleveland Guardians are ecstatic to be facing Tarik Skubal Saturday afternoon. Would they rather be facing a myriad of Tigers’ relievers? Of course, but they are happy to have persevered and survived Game 4 and to have in the process forced a fifth and deciding game in their American League Division series.
Thursday Night, Guardians’ pinch hitter David Fry blasted a 2-run home run in the seventh inning to put Cleveland in front for good as the Guardians won the game 5-4.
The win snapped a string of 11 straight losses by Cleveland in elimination games dating back to Game 6 of the 1997 World Series.
As mentioned, Detroit will be sending Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal to the mound in hope of reaching the ALCS for the first time since 2013. He will be opposed by Matthew Boyd.
Lets dive into the matchup and find a sweat or two.
We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch first-pitch, projected pitching matchup, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.
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● Date: Saturday, October 12, 2024
● Time: 1:08 PM ET
● Site: Progressive Field
● City: Cleveland, OH
● TV/Streaming: TBS, MAX
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The latest odds as of Friday night:
● Moneyline: Detroit Tigers (-120), Cleveland Guardians (+100)
● Spread: Tigers -1.5 (+155), Guardians +1.5 (-190)
● Total: 6
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Saturday’s pitching matchup (October 12): Tarik Skubal vs. Matthew Boyd
○ Tigers: Skubal – (1-0, 0.00 ERA) has allowed 7 hits and 0 earned runs while striking out 14 over 13 innings this postseason.
○ Guardians: Boyd – (0-0, 0.00) has allowed 4 hits and 0 earned runs while striking out 5 over 4.2 innings this postseason.
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The UNDER is 4-2 in the Guardians’ last 6 matchups against American League teams.
In their last 12 games, the Tigers have cashed the OVER three times.
Dating back to the regular season, the Tigers have won 4 of their last 5 series.
Jose Ramirez is hitting just .143 (2-14) in this series but he did hit his 1st home run of the series in Game 4.
Steven Kwan is hitting .500 (8-16) in this series after going 3-5 in Game 4.
· Tigers: Detroit upset the Houston Astros in the Wild Card round winning two straight in Texas. Prior to this season, the Tigers last qualified for the playoffs in 2014. They have won the World Series in 1935, 1945, 1968, and 1984.
· Guardians: Cleveland has an all-time record of 62-60. They have appeared in the World Series 6 times – 1920, 1948, 1954,1995, 1997, and 2016 – and lost 6 times.
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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts.
Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.
Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Saturday’s Game 5 – Detroit @ Cleveland:
Moneyline: NBC Sports is leaning towards a play on the Tigers on the Moneyline
Spread: NBC Sports is staying away from a play on the Run Line
Total Runs: NBC Sports is recommending a play on the Total UNDER 6 runs
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