Game Time: 10:10 pm ET, Friday, June 17th , 2022 

Venue: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California

Where to Watch: Apple TV+

DraftKings: Money-line: Guardians +250, Dodgers -303; O/U 8

BetMGM: Moneyline:  

Opening Lines:

Guardians: 31-27, 2nd place AL Central

Dodgers: 39-23, tied for 1st place NL West

An inter-conference matchup between the 2nd place AL Central team… and the 1st place (tied) team in the NL West… Sound close?... It shouldn’t be.  The Cleveland Guardians are in 2nd place in the worst division in the entire MLB.  The Guardians will have to face a majority of their games against the Twins (good), the Chicago White Sox (bad), The Detroit Tigers (very bad), and the Kansas City Royals (very awful).  If not for the Twins, this division would be at home playing in the minors. **   The Dodgers meanwhile are in the National League’s most competitive division where they have won one and lost one World Series in the last two seasons.  They are trying to fight off the Padres and the San Francisco Giants who are both good to great.

**(Baseball is at a key point in history.  Only die-hards watch the regular season and only the occasional offseason is good enough to draw more than looky-loos.  It’s great betting… but outside of that… What baseball NEEDS is expulsion.  Every year two teams should be ejected and replaced by the two best minor league clubs.  If the clubs that went down don’t get to the championship?... they don’t come back until they do… If the clubs that came up don’t finish in the bottom two… They get to stay!)  

The Cleveland Guardians have won 8 of their last 10 games.  It has been a magical renaissance that has lifted the Guardians from 3rd place to 2nd place.  The Guardians have good batting numbers and good pitching numbers.  Those numbers are built through playing BAD Teams… The recent 8 of ten was built against playing really bad teams.  So the Guardians put us in the position of looking very deeply at the numbers… Are they good or are they feasting on Guinea Pigs?  The Guardians went 2-0 against the Colorado Rockies (with 1 more to play), 3-1 against the Oakland A’s (who are my vote for relegation), 2-1 against the Texas Rangers, and 1-0 against the Baltimore Orioles.  The Guardians are on a 3-game winning streak.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have won only 4 of their last 10 games.  June has kicked the Dodgers in the butt firmly.  As has the injuries to 8 pitchers (Trevor Bauer is not among them… though he is on the list… he will never play MLB baseball again).  The Dodgers only recently got P Clayton Kershaw back from the injury list and then added absolute stud P Walker Buehler to the list.  Nothing has gone right in June.  Still they are top 3 in batting and top 3 in pitching in the league… So a return to form is expected.  They went 2-0 against the Los Angeles Angels, 0-3 against the San nFrancisco Dodgers, 2-1 against the Chicago White Sox, and 0-2 against the New York Mets.  The Dodgers are on a 2-game winning streak.  

Scott Rickenbach is 30-19 in the last 30 days of mlb picks for a profit of +$9,410… You could have been following along.... Get Scott Rickebach’s picks at BigAl.com! They are available right now at the Shop Picks page, where you can find all of the Best Bets from our RED HOT champion sports handicappers. Try following a handicapper for 30 days or 60 days… OR ALL SEASON!  You can beat your BOOK!  Remember winning your wagers is much more fun than making the wagers!

Guardians: The Guardians are 10th in scoring with 4.67 runs per game, 8th in batting average with .251, and 17th in OBP with .313.

Dodgers: The Dodgers are 1st in scoring with 5.08 ERA, 13th in batting average with .246, and 2nd in OBP with .328.

Guardians:  The Guardians pitchers’ are 7th in ERA with 3.63, 7th in WHIP with 1.16, and 14th in fielding errors with 33 on the season.

Dodgers: The Dodgers pitchers’ are 2nd in ERA with 2.98, 2nd in WHIP with 1.08, and 8th in fielding errors with 30 on the season so far.

Our prediction for Friday, June 17th is….  Dodgers 8 - Guardians 3

The bet is for the Dodgers with a side-bet on the OVER.  We have been waiting to see what the Dodgers would do when a bad team came to town and what the Guardians would do against a good team while the Guardians are on the road.  The answer is predictable.  The Dodgers will lap the bases.  The Guardians will hide their faces.  The answer to the win for the Dodgers is the amazing disparity in starting pitching in favor of the Dopdgers… that only gets bigger when we look to the bullpen numbers.  

Don't miss our champion handicappers' Free MLB Picks and Premium Selections every day here at Bigal.com. Just click on Shop Picks for our Best Bets, or click on Shop Subscriptions to join for a week or a month. And if you enjoyed this Guardians/Dodgers preview, be sure to bookmark Bigal.com for our daily Game Previews and Predictions. Also get all your NFL, NBA, WNBA, Hockey, and NCAA everything!  Insights that can’t be beat!

Cleveland is 50-122 (-23.3 Units) as a road underdog of +175 to +250. Since 1997.

Dodgers are 745-373 (+44.7 Units) as a home favorite of -150 or more.  Since 1997.

Dodgers are 242-72 (+63.8 Units) as a home favorite of 200+ or higher.  Since 1997.

Guardians: RF F. Ramirez (hamstring) Out 

Dodgers: CF K. Pillar (shoulder) Out ** 3B E. Rios (hamstring) Out 

Guardians: RHP Zach Plesac, 2-4, 4.70 ERA, 43 strikeouts in 61 innings pitched.  1.29 WHIP.  A 27 year old with real talent having a bad season.

Dodgers: LHP Clayton Kershaw, 4-1, 2.12 ERA, 36 strikeouts in 34 innings pitched.  0.79 WHIP.  Clayton is the Ace of Aces.  The 34 year old feels 1000 years old because he has been dominant for a decade.  He still has gas in the tank after 2,488 career innings pitched.  The man wins regular season games… he always has.

Guardians: CF Miles Straw, SS Amed Rosario, DH Jose Ramirez, RF Oscar Gonzalez, 2B Owen Miller, 1B Josh Naylor, 3B Ernie Clement, LF Oscar Mercado, C Luke Maile

Dodgers: RF Mookie Betts, 1B Freddie Freeman, SS Trea Turner, C Will Smith, 3B Max Muncy, DH Justin Turner, CF Cody Bellinger, LF Chris Taylor, 2B Gavin Lux

Guardians: Terry Francona… though Terry has missed 4 games to Covid… so maybe someone else… but maybe him?... It’s about testing and “shedding”.

Dodgers: Dave “Nothing to see here” Roberts

Partly Cloudy.  74* during the day with the temp dropping to the mid-sixties for gametime… then a bit lower as they play.  Humidity 62%, Wind 8 mph.  Dodger stadium is the best place for baseball in the country…. Except for the food.  The worst food in baseball is the “Dodger Dog”, a lifeless, not grilled, waste of bun.  The fact that it is called “Dodger Dog” has confused people into putting it in their mouths…. Awful.  A better bet is to hit the Bar-B-Q place on the upper level next to the smoker’s patio.  You can get a BBQ beef sandwich on a bun that only costs more than you were willing to spend.  There is a lot to love about a game at Dodger stadium… the lack of quality food shouldn’t deter you.