Rays vs. Guardians prediction and odds for Friday, Sept. 1 (Glasnow dominates)

The Tampa Bay Rays have won four-straight games and now they have three games in Cleveland this weekend.

The Rays are 1.5 games behind the Orioles in the AL East at 82-52 and the Guardians come into this series at 64-70, an afterthought in the playoff picture despite winning a series against the first place Twins this week to get to within five games. 

The Guardians will open the series with Cal Quantrill on the mound. Quantrill is 2-6 in 13 starts with a 6.45 ERA and hasn’t pitched since July 5. Tyler Glasnow will go for the Rays and he has  a 7-4 record in 15 starts with a 3.12 ERA. 

Let’s get into the odds for tonight in Cleveland, and if you want to bet this one you can do it with this FanDuel Sportsbook promo.

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Rays vs. Guardians odds, run line and total

Rays vs. Guardians prediction and pick

It’s usually just a matter of if Tyler Glasnow is healthy, if he is he’s going to pitch well. Right now, he is healthy and in his last start he pitched very well, allowing just one hit over six innings against the New York Yankees.

The Cleveland lineup performed much worse than the New York lineup in August. The Guardians were actually worse than almost every team in the league. 

Last month Cleveland posted a team OPS of .647 and scored just 101 runs which ranked 26th. Even Jose Ramirez struggled last month hitting .207 with just three home runs. As a team they hit .228 and Kole Calhoun was somehow their best hitter. 

Tampa Bay had a bounce-back month offensively, so I feel good about taking it in this matchup, at least with Glasnow on the mound. Cal Quantrill, who is his counterpart, has an xERA of 6.07 this season and an expected batting average of .299 which is absurdly high. He has a 12.4% strikeout rate which is in the bottom 1% of pitchers. 

I see this one as a big win for the Rays to extend their win-streak to five games. 

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change