Avoid Betting the Cleveland Guardians, Philadelphia Phillies

We're not entirely convinced the Philadephia Phillies are preparing to mount a comeback despite winning four of their last six games.

A series in Arizona will certainly provide a good enough test.  The Diamondbacks are currently among the best teams in Major League Baseball right now according our own MLB Power Rankings.

Depending on how the Phillies-Diamondbacks series goes, it's possible that Philadelphia jumps onto the Power Rankings.  They do own a winning record for the season and that's in danger of going away any time soon at 69-47.  The problem is they are in a terrible funk at the moment.

The Dodgers and Guardians are two other winning teams that are not part of the current rankings.

1. San Diego Padres
2. Arizona Diamondbacks
3. Minnesota Twins
4. New York Yankees
5. Kansas City Royals
6. San Francisco Giants
7. Baltimore Orioles
8. Boston Red Sox
9. Milwaukee Brewers
10. New York Mets
11. St. Louis Cardinals
12. Tampa Bay Rays
13. Houston Astros
14. Chicago Cubs

Avoid the Guardians Right Now

Bailey Ober pitched six shutout innings and Carlos Santana and Ryan Jeffers each hit solo home runs for the Minnesota Twins in a 4-2 victory over the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians on Friday in the opener of a doubleheader commencing a four-game series between the division front-runners.  This marked Cleveland's seventh straight loss.

RHP Alex Cobb was set to start the second game in his debut both for this season and for Cleveland, which acquired him for prospects on July 30 in a trade with San Francisco. The 36-year-old Cobb had offseason hip surgery after making his first All-Star game last year for the Giants.

Baseball bookie software has Cleveland at +100 in Saturday's game against Minnesota.

Simeon Woods Richardson will start for the Twins.  He's 3-2 with a 3.87 ERA on the season. 

Woods Richardson is not the most trusted among the Twins pitching staff.  He pitched four innings and allowed three runs Sunday against the White Sox.

This should have been the easiest win of Woods Richardson’s young career; he was facing a team that had lost 19 straight, and the Twins gave him eight runs to work with in the first two innings.  He hasn't had a win in his last six starts.

Gavin Williams with his 1-4 record and 4.91 ERA starts for Cleveland.  He's actually shut out the Twins in 10 at bats.