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We had an unbelievable Wild Card weekend of baseball action, so can the next round match the insanity? Our next MLB betting preview focuses on Game 1 of the American League Division Series between the Cleveland Guardians (92-70, 46-35 Away) and New York Yankees (99-63, 57-24 Home). First pitch in the Best-of-5 ALDS opener is scheduled for 7:37 pm EST on Tuesday night from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx..

These two AL clubs are no strangers to each other in recent postseasons, as the Yankees eliminated Cleveland in both 2020 and 2017. New York also won the season series in 2022, taking five of the six head-to-head meetings between the two.

Guardians vs. Yankees ALDS Odds

Tuesday’s series opener will feature a pitching matchup between Cleveland’s Cal Quantrill (15-5, 3.38 ERA) and the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole (13-8, 3.50 ERA).

Guardians Move On

In year one of the Guardians era (changing names from the Indians), Cleveland exceeded expectations by winning the AL Central. They did so, ultimately, in runaway fashion, besting the White Sox by 11 games and Minnesota by 14, despite battling the Twins for the top spot for much of the year.

They weren’t content on simply a division crown, however, as they swept the Tampa Bay Rays in the best-of-3 Wild Card series this past weekend. Unlike the other AL Wild Card shootout in Toronto, where the Mariners rallied back to win 10-9, Cleveland needed 15 innings to put away the Rays, finally sending Tampa packing after Oscar Gonzalez’s walk-off homer.

The Guardians snapped an eight-game playoff losing streak in the series opener Friday and capped off their first postseason series victory since 2016.

Pinstripes Poised

The Yankees, meanwhile, are coming off a 99-win campaign, good enough for another AL East crown and the two-seed in the American League playoff bracket. They were able to earn a bye in this new playoff format, and they watched the Guardians-Rays series very closely.

Much of the attention on the Bombers down the stretch centered around Aaron Judge and his quest to break many of baseball’s home run records. He finished with 62, a new franchise and American League record, as the son of Roger Maris looked on during many of the team’s final games. Now, the focus can go back to the team as a whole as they try to win a World Series for the first time since 2009.

ALDS Game 1 Betting Odds

This game is still off the board at the time of this writing as the Guardians haven’t officially announced their starter, but the expectation is that Quantrill will get the call.

Betting Pick

In four postseason starts as a Yankee, Cole is 2-1 with a 3.98 ERA. He was 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in two starts against Cleveland this year. Quantrill has just one-third of an inning of postseason experience, recording one out with Cleveland in 2020, but he did pitch into the seventh inning in his lone start against New York this season.

With all the pressure off Judge, the Yankees should be swinging freely and take the opener on Tuesday.