MLB Playoff Picks and Preview for Monday, October 7, 2024
Tonight, we have a pair of MLB Playoff games in the American League from the Divisional Series. The Detroit Tigers will take on the Cleveland Guardians in the first of two games today, and the New York Yankees will host the Kansas City Royals in the latter of the two games.
The Detroit Tigers find themselves down 0-1 in the series after getting blanked on Saturday by a score of 7-0. On Saturday, the Tigers could only get 4 hits on the Cleveland Guardians.
Tanner Bibee got the start for the Guardians and went 4 and 2/3 innings. Bibee then turned the ball over to the Guardians bullpen, which many believe is the best in baseball! The bullpen did not allow a hit in just over 4 and 1/3’s innings on the mound.
Today, the Guardians will go with Matthew Boyd on the mound. The Guardians have won Boyd’s last 3 out of 4 appearances. Boyd has appeared in 8 games this season, and in those 8 games, he has allowed 16 total runs.
The Guardians have the luxury of pulling him for that amazing bullpen if he finds himself in trouble.
On the other side, the Detroit Tigers will have Tarik Skubal on the mound. Skubal has already faced the Guardians once this year, earning the win in that matchup.
It should be noted that Skubal gave up more hits in that game than he has in any other game this year but again, he got the win 8-2 in that game.
In the second game of the day, we have the New York Yankees taking on the Kansas City Royals. The Yankees won on Saturday 6-5 over the Royals to take a 1-0 lead.
The Yankees will have Carlos Rodon on the mound vs. Cole Ragans for the Royals. Rodon pitched well this season, and the Yankees could rely on him to not let up many runs. In 21 of his 32 starts, he allowed less than 2 runs.
The Yankees have won 3 of his last 4 starts and won both of his starts this season against the Kansas City Royals.
Cole Ragans will get the start for the Royals. Ragans pitched exceptionally well in the Wild Card Round, shutting out the Baltimore Orioles over 6 innings where he allowed 4 hits and no earned runs.
Ragans has faced the Yankees once this season, on September 11, 2024, and in that game he only allowed 3 hits and 2 earned runs in a 4-3 loss.
Our friends over at BetOnline have some very competitive lines for these two games. In the Tigers vs Guardians matchup, we find the road team is the favorite, with Skubal being -124 compared to Boyd returning +114. The total in that game is a very low 6 runs!
In the second game, BetOnline has the Yankees as -147 home favorites compared to the road team, KC Royals, bringing back +135. The total in that game is 7.5 runs.
Spooky Express MLB Playoff Free Play
Our free play in the MLB Playoff matchup for today is the Detroit Tigers Team Total UNDER 3.5 runs.This is pretty simple to us, BULLPEN BULLPEN BULLPEN! The Cleveland Bullpen is rested (2 days) and Cleveland will not let teams score runs on them.
Look at the last 5 times these two have played. In those 5 games, Detroit has scored a total of 8 runs and 7 of the runs were scored in two games! This is a pitchers matchup and we don’t see many runs being scored here today!
We can see this one being a 1-0 or 2-0 game, for either side! Regardless, we can’t see a means where Detroit scores 4 runs, which is what it would take to beat us. Give us Detroit UNDER 3.5 runs in the MLB Playoff game!