CLE 1st 5 (-105)

Triston McKenzie takes the mound for Cleveland who has pitched extremely well against the lineup that he is facing in a small sample size. It may be a small sample size, but we are looking at a Detroit team that is hitting .088 against “Sticks”. He did struggle in 2 of his previous starts but has settled down against OAK/BOS/HOU within his last 3 starts and should be assisted with the Tigers whiffing 20% of pitches against McKenzie in their careers.

Jack Flaherty has struggled this season without collecting a win so far and giving up at least 1 home run in each of his starts other than his last start against the Cardinals. Flaherty does keep the ball around the strike zone and racks up strikeouts, but he does get hit and get hit often. The Guardians are a collective .269 against Flaherty and with the current form that we are seeing from him, I think we are going to see a lot of runners on base for the Guardians. Cleveland is hitting .242 with runners in scoring position and I think we see those opportunities within the first 5 innings.