Cleveland Guardians vs Texas Rangers Prediction 9-16-23 MLB Picks
The Texas Rangers and the Cleveland Guardians meet Saturday in MLB action from Progressive Field. This will be the second installment in a three-game series over the weekend. On Friday in the opener, the Guardians posted a blowout win to strike first. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.
Texas Rangers
The Rangers did great against the Blue Jays this week, taking a four-game sweep with wins 10-4, 6-3, 10-0 and 9-2. Corey Seager and Jonah Heim each homered in the Thursday win. On Friday versus Cleveland, Texas managed three cosmetic runs in the ninth inning but otherwise came up empty in a 12-3 loss. Austin Hedges had two RBI and Sam Huff hit a solo homer in the defeat.
In the starter role for Saturday the Rangers are going with Dane Dunning. This year in his 31 games (22 starts) Dunning is 10-6 with a 3.91 ERA and 122 Ks in 152.0 innings. Dunning is 21-24 with a 4.25 ERA over 94 games (83 starts) in his career.
Texas Rangers Team Facts
The underdogs have won four of the Rangers' last five games.
The Rangers have failed to cover the run line in each of their last eight games following a loss.
The Rangers have trailed after 5 innings in each of their last five games at Progressive Field against American League opponents that held a losing record.
The 'Inning 1 OVER 0.5 runs' market has hit in each of the Rangers' last four games as underdogs against AL Central opponents.
The Rangers have trailed after 7 innings in each of their last five games at Progressive Field against AL Central opponents that held a losing record.
Cleveland Guardians
Over on the Guardians’ side, they took on the Giants this week and lost two of three games. In Wednesday’s 6-5 loss, Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez had two hits, two RBI and a homer. In the Friday game Cleveland had five runs in the sixth inning alone on the way to 15 team hits. Josh Naylor (four hits; run) and Andres Gimenez (two hits; two runs; homer) each had three RBI.
Tanner Bibee will take the mound for the start on Saturday for the Guardians. This year over his 24 starts Bibee is 10-4 with a 3.03 ERA and 137 Ks in 136.2 innings. Bibee has gone 3-2 with a 2.79 ERA over his last seven starts.
Cleveland Guardians Team Facts
The Guardians have lost each of their last five games as favorites following a win.
The Guardians have failed to cover the run line in each of their last nine night games against AL West opponents following a win.
The Guardians have trailed after 7 innings in four of their last five games as home favorites against American League opponents.
The Guardians have trailed after 3 innings in four of their last five games as home favorites against American League opponents.
The Guardians have trailed after 5 innings in four of their last five games as home favorites against American League opponents.
Matchup/League Facts
The Cleveland Guardians rank 30th in the league for home runs this season (114).
The Cleveland Guardians rank 1st in the league for strikeouts against this season (1046).
The Texas Rangers rank 2nd in the league for hits this season (1362).
The Texas Rangers rank 2nd in the league for doubles this season (308).
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’ll stick with Cleveland in this one. Bibee is on a nice run over his last three starts, but he’s just 0-1 in that time. Bibee has posted six earned runs over 17.0 innings in that trio, giving up 10 hits and eight walks. As for Dunning, he’s got 15 earned over his last 15.1 innings, but nine of those earned runs came from a single start. On Friday Cleveland went wild at the plate; everyone in the lineup got in on the action. That’s 24 runs in the last four games for the Guardians. If they can keep it up they’ll be in great shape for game two.
