The Cleveland Guardians take on the Oakland Athletics. Our MLB odds series has our Guardians Athletics prediction and pick. Find out how to watch Guardians Athletics.
A new Major League Baseball season begins for the Guardians and the A's. The Guardians are coming off a deeply disappointing season which was also the last for legendary manager Terry Francona, who retired after a career which will take him to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Francona, who won two World Series with the Boston Red Sox and ended that franchise's 86-year championship drought, very nearly ended Cleveland's own World Series dry spell. The Cleveland franchise has not won a World Series since 1948. A 68-year drought nearly ended in 2016, but the Chicago Cubs nipped the then-Indians (now the Guardians) in extra innings in Game 7 of the World Series in Ohio. The Guardians had a terrific 2022 season in which they made the playoffs. In 2023, Francona's final season, they couldn't return to October in what was a very mediocre division. Despite the weakness of the American League Central, the Guardians couldn't rise to the top of the standings. They were nowhere close to any wild card spot. Now Cleveland starts over with 39-year-old Stephen Vogt, a longtime catcher who will get his first chance at managing a big-league ballclub. It's a big change after Francona's 11-season tenure.
The Oakland Athletics are beginning a season with the knowledge that they will soon relocate to Las Vegas. Oakland fans protested the desire of ownership to relocate to Vegas for much of last season. The A's put out a very cheap product and did not make a robust effort to be competitive. Fans stayed away not because of a lack of caring, but to send a message to ownership. It is hard to fully express or imagine what it must be like for a team to play in front of a small crowd on a regular basis in an old ballpark which lacks the charm of more modern-retro stadiums in Major League Baseball. Will this team be able to make significant forward strides, or will this 2024 season be strikingly similar to the miserable 2023 journey the A's made?
Here are the Guardians-Athletics MLB odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
MLB Odds: Guardians-Athletics Odds
Cleveland Guardians: -1.5 (+108)
Oakland Athletics: +1.5 (-130)
Over: 7.5 (-102)
Under: 7.5 (-120)
How To Watch Guardians vs. Athletics
TV: Bally Sports Great Lakes (Guardians) / NBC Sports California (A's) / MLB Extra Innings
Stream: MLB.TV
Time: 10:07 p.m. ET/7:07 p.m. PT
*Watch Guardians-Athletics LIVE on fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Why The Guardians Could Cover The Spread
The Guardians have Shane Bieber, one of their better starting pitchers, going to the mound. Against a less-than-fearsome Oakland batting order, Bieber has a matchup he should welcome. The Oakland Coliseum is well-known as a pitcher-friendly park, partly for the long distances in the outfield, but mostly because of the enormous amount of foul territory which holds pop-ups in the park and leads to a lot more outs than in parks where there is a scant amount of real estate outside the foul lines. Cleveland has a lot to prove this season, and with a new manager providing fresh leadership, there will be a slight extra degree of motivation to get the season started on the right track. The Guardians have the ideal opponent for starting their season with a win.
Why The Athletics Could Cover The Spread
The Guardians were a light-hitting team last season. They merit some skepticism this year. Alex Wood is Oakland's starting pitcher, coming across the bay from the San Francisco Giants. Wood was not dominant last season, but he had several outings of five to six innings in which he gave up fewer than two runs. If he goes five innings and gives up one run in this game, that would put the A's in position to cover the spread.
Final Guardians-Athletics Prediction & Pick
The A's are not good. Betting against them last year was usually profitable. Take Cleveland.
Final Guardians-Athletics Prediction & Pick: Guardians -1.5
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