First Five Play in Game 1 of Guardians vs. Yankees

Guardians vs. Yankees, Game 1 7:37 ET

This is the only series on the board that I think has a really good chance of the dog winning the series. Cleveland is not great, but they are playing very well at the right time. In addition, they also are built around a strong pitching staff. That is typically the key for the playoffs. Let's take a look at Game 1 and see what happens.

I mentioned in yesterday's article that the Yankees killed the Guardians in this series during the regular season. One pitcher that had some success against them was Cal Quantrill. Over the year, Quantrill was solid for the Guardians. He threw to a 3.53 ERA on the road and was better in the second half of the season than he was in the first. August through September saw him throw 13 starts and he covered 75.1 innings and allowed just 21 earned runs. In his one and only start against the Yankees, he posted a quality start. He allowed three earned runs in 6.1 innings. Josh Donaldson, Andrew Benintendi, and Harrison Bader have all had some success against Quantrill in case you're looking some DFS players. The Guardians lost that game that Quantrill started against the Yankees 5-4.

Gerrit Cole is taking the ball for the Yanks. This isn't much of a surprise based on his status and how much the Yankees pay the man. However, I probably would've started Nestor Cortes. Anyway, my thought on who should start is irrelevant. Cole still led the majors in strikeouts. Guess which team strikes out the least this year... Yep, the Guardians. Cole also allowed 33 home runs this year in 33 starts. The Guardians had the second-fewest home runs per game, though. So even though they can combat his strength a bit, they are not able to capitalize on his weakness of this season. He was awesome against the Guardians in two starts going 12.2 innings and allowed just two earned runs.

If the Guardians are going to win any games, or multiple games, they have to rely on their starting pitching. It was dominant most of the last two months and held the Rays to just one run in 24 innings. I think they have a legitimate chance to win this game, but I'm going to take the first five innings as a safer play for the push potential. I haven't rushed Cole in many spots this season so we are playing the Guardians +175 through five innings.

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