The Cleveland Guardians have kept their heads above water in June but haven’t been able to go on a real surge. They are 7-6 in the month heading into a weekend road series against the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks.
Cleveland was a slight +120 money-line underdog Friday at FanDuel Sportsbook, facing off against Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen, who is the favorite to win the NL Cy Young award right now (+200). The Guardians are a -130 favorite in Saturday’s contest with their ace, Shane Bieber, on the mound. Cleveland entered as an even-money underdog to win the series at +100, while the Diamondbacks are at -125.
Bieber is starting to round into mid-season form. He gave up one run over 5-2/3 innings in a no-decision against the Red Sox on June 6. Bieber followed that up with his best start of the year, tossing seven shutout innings in a win against the Astros on June 11. Bieber is now 5-3 and his ERA is down to 3.29.
He remains a +10000 long shot to win the AL Cy Young Award at FanDuel, but there is a significantly large gap between the top 10 odds favorites and the rest of the field. Rays ace Shane McClanahan is the betting favorite at +275, followed by the Astros’ Framber Valdez (+450) and Yankees’ Gerrit Cole (+550).
In the AL MVP race it’s going to be nearly impossible to get past the favorites Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani (-300) and Yankees slugger Aaron Judge (+800). But Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez deserves a special shout-out.
Ramirez is a +7000 AL MVP longshot at FanDuel, but he had a three-homer game against the Red Sox on June 8. And in the past seven games (going into Friday), the infielder is hitting .500 (15 for 30) with four home runs, 10 RBIs and nine runs scored, putting Ramirez in position to be named AL Player of the Week.
As for the Guardians, they are at +8000 to win the World Series, putting them slightly below the middle of the pack, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Cleveland’s odds of winning the tight AL Central are at +260, just behind the division-leading Twins (-215). The Guardians are betting at +240 to make the postseason in any form and -295 to miss the playoffs.
