American League Championship Game 3 Preview: Cleveland Guardians vs. New York Yankees

The Cleveland Guardians find themselves with their backs against the wall as they are down 2-0 in the American League championship series Game 3 against the New York Yankees. The Guardians lost the first two games of the series in New York, and now the series heads to Cleveland, Ohio, for game three at Progressive Field.
Oddsmakers have this game as a coin flip, with both teams coming in right around -110. The total for the over-under is seven runs in this game.
New York Yankees Preview
To be blunt and to the point, the New York Yankees have dominated the Cleveland Guardians in 2024. They’ve won six of eight games against Cleveland, including games one and two in the American League championship series.
In game one, the Yankees won 5 – 2, thanks to a stellar performance from Carlos Rodon. In Game two, the Yankees won 63, with Cleveland pitcher Alex Cobb lasting just 2.2 innings.
The Yankees will now turn to Clarke Schmidt for the start on the road in Cleveland. We last saw Schmidt in Kansas City, where he lasted 4.2 innings and gave up only four hits and two earned runs. Schmidt faced the guardians once this year on April 13th, going 5 innings and giving up just three hits and two runs.
Cleveland Guardians Preview
The guardians will turn to Matthew Boyd to be their savior. We have seen Boyd twice in the postseason: once on October 7th in a 3 – 0 loss to the Detroit Tigers and once on October 12th in a 7-3 win against the Detroit Tigers.
He pitched well in both games, going a total of 6.2 innings and only giving up five hits and no earned runs. His location was precise as he struck out 10 batters between those two games and only walked three.
Cleveland’s issue is its lack of run support for its pitchers. Between the two games in New York, the Guardians have only been able to score five runs, which is unacceptable against a team like New York that was going to score runs in bulk.
Spooky Express Free Play
Before we get to our American League championship series Game 3 free play today, we want to remind everyone that the Spooky Express Premium Plays are available for $149.99 for a 30-day package.
Now, for today’s free play, we’re going with the under in this spot. We have to believe the day off will help the Cleveland bullpen, and knowing that Matthew Boyd hasn’t allowed a run in the postseason leads us to believe we may see the same thing today and have a low-scoring game. Give us game three of the American League championship series under seven runs.