Tigers vs. Guardians Prediction, Odds, Probable Pitchers and Prop Bets for AL Wild Card Game 3

Jack Flaherty faces Slade Cecconi in a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday afternoon.

Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Slade Cecconi is a good bet to go over his strikeouts prop on Thursday afternoon. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Guardians bounced back late in Game 2, surviving a few Detroit Tigers’ scares before putting up a five-spot in the bottom of the eighth to take a 6-1 lead.

Both teams used a lot of pitchers in the first two games, which will test their bullpen depth in Game 3.

Which team will advance to face off against the Seattle Mariners in the ALDS?

Here are the odds, probable pitchers, and predictions for Tigers vs. Guardians on Thursday afternoon.

Tigers vs. Guardians Odds, Run Line and Total

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

Run Line

• Tigers -1.5 (+166)
• Guardians +1.5 (-205)

Moneyline

• Tigers -107
• Guardians -113

Total

• 7 (Over -116/Under -105)

Tigers vs. Guardians Probable Pitchers

• Tigers: Jack Flaherty (8-15, 4.64 ERA)
• Guardians: Slade Cecconi (7-7, 4.30 ERA)

Tigers vs. Guardians How to Watch

• Date: Thursday, October 2
• Time: 3:00 p.m. ET
• Venue: Progressive Field
• How to Watch (TV): ABC
• Tigers record: 87-75 (1-1)
• Guardians record: 88-74 (1-1)

Tigers vs. Guardians Best MLB Prop Bets

Guardians Best MLB Prop Bet

• Slade Cecconi OVER 3.5 Strikeouts (-131)

The Guardians turn to Slade Cecconi in a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday afternoon. He settled down in his final four starts of the season, allowing a total of 6 ER in 24.2 IP (2.19) but got pulled after allowing four runs in four innings in his last outing against the Rangers.

Cecconi is never going to be known as a strikeout pitcher. He had 109 strikeouts in 132 innings this season, bring his career total to 193 in 236 innings. Those are fairly respectable numbers for a mid-rotation starter.

We’re getting this line at just 3.5 on Thursday afternoon, and I’m taking the Over. Cecconi had at least four strikeouts in 13 of his 23 starts in the regular season. That includes two six-strikeout outings against the Tigers in the first half.

Detroit struck out 11 times on Wednesday, including six times in 4.2 innings against starter Tanner Bibee, and Gavin Williams had eight strikeouts in six innings in Game 1.

Cecconi should be able to clear 3.5 strikeouts easily and could be worth laddering up to six punchouts.

Tigers vs. Guardians Prediction and Pick

The Tigers and Guardians are two teams that simply won’t put up many runs on the board. In eight meetings since September 16, only one had more than seven runs – that was the first matchup, a 7-5 Cleveland win.

Since then, Cleveland has outscored Detroit 26-11 in seven games. That is a total of 37 runs for an average of 5.28 runs per game.

Things tighten up in the postseason as shown by both of these teams struggling to get runners on, and then failing to get them home when they do have ducks on the pond.

The starting pitching matchup does make me a bit hesitant to take the Under, but Cecconi allowed three runs in 12 innings against Detroit this season and Flaherty allowed seven runs in 16 innings. 

This should be yet another low-scoring matchup in Cleveland.

Pick: Under 7 (-105)

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Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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