Houston Astros vs. Cleveland Guardians Odds, Preview and Prediction – September 28th

The Cleveland Guardians enter Saturday's game with a chance to overtake the New York Yankees for first place in the American League playoffs. They'll look to keep those hopes alive when they play at home against the Houston Astros on Saturday.

Justin Verlander starts for Houston. He will be looking to return to his form from previous seasons as he enters the season with a 5.55 ERA and 1.5 home runs per nine innings. Both are the worst results of his career in any season in which he threw at least 12 innings.

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The Astros' bullpen ERA of 3.67 ranks eighth in the league, but the Guardians' bullpen ERA of 2.59 ranks first as no other team in the league entered Saturday with an ERA under 3.14 gets started.

Ben Lively takes over as the starting gun for the Guardians. Lively had his own issues allowing hard contact with a 3.80 ERA and a 4.65 fielding independent, while allowing 1.4 home runs per nine innings and posting just seven strikeouts per nine innings.

Luckily for Lively, the Astros' leader in home runs and RBI, Yordan Alvarez, has been left out of the lineup until the playoffs begin, and the Astros are seeing a decline in performance at the away plate.

Houston ranks sixth overall in the league and second in the American League with nearly 4.9 runs per game at home, while they rank 18th on the road with 4.3 runs per game.

With the Guardians boasting the best home winning percentage in the American League at 50-28 on Friday, Cleveland will keep its hopes of moving to the top spot alive with a win on Saturday.

MLB Pick: Cleveland Guardians -113

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