Leading up to game two of this AL Central battle, the Guardians (54-56, 29-24 home) will send Noah Syndergaard to the mound to take on the White Sox (43-68, 20-39 away) and Michael Kopech. Find out who I like to come out on top in this Chicago White Sox vs. Cleveland Guardians matchup in Cleveland.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX VS CLEVELAND GUARDIANS BETTING PICK

The Pick: Cleveland Guardians -1.5 Runs

This game will be played at Progressive Field at 7:10 ET on Saturday, August 5th.

WHY BET THE CLEVELAND GUARDIANS:

  • The White Sox are just 1-4 vs. the runline in their last five road games.
  • Chicago have failed to cover the runline in four straight road games.
  • Michael Kopech has given up seven home runs across his last four starts.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX STRUGGLING VS RUNLINE OF LATE

The White Sox’s record of 43-68 has them ranked 4th in the AL Central. So far, they have a below .500 series record of 8-23-3. This season, they have gone 23-29 at home and 20-39 on the road.

Michael Kopech has taken the mound 20 times this season, with a record of 4-10 and an ERA of 4.49. His WHIP stands at 1.44 and opponents have a .330 OBP against him. The right-hander has also been plagued by the long ball in his last six outings, surrendering a home run in each one. His strikeout to walk ratio is 109/63.

After a defeat to the Guardians, Michael Kopech’s most recent outing saw him surrender three runs on four hits in five innings of work.

The White Sox’s offense comes into today’s game with a collective batting average of .236 and are averaging 4.1 runs per game for the season. Looking at their five most recent games, Chicago has gone deep one time, which is ranked 11th in that time. To date, the team’s OPS is .678 to go along with an on base percentage of .294.

Over the White Sox’s last ten games, Tim Anderson has been the team’s leader in home runs, with a single long ball. His season-long total stands at one homer, while his overall batting average is .243.

WILL THE CLEVELAND GUARDIANS TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS AT HOME?

With an overall record of 54-56, the Guardians are 2nd in the AL Central. When playing at home, they are 29-24 and 25-32. So far, Cleveland has a record of 27-27 against below .500 teams and have played in 34 series, going 16-16-2.

Cleveland’s Noah Syndergaard has had a challenging season thus far, with an overall record of 1-4 and an ERA of 6.68. His ERA on the road is 9.05, while he has been able to keep it to 4.59 when pitching at home. Syndergaard’s WHIP stands at 1.39, and opposing teams have hit .285 against him with a slugging percentage of .496.

In his most recent start, Noah Syndergaard went 5 1/3 innings in the Guardians’ 7-3 defeat to the Astros. He was unable to secure a win, but allowed just one run on two hits, resulting in a no-decision.

With a season-long average of 4.1 runs per game, the Guardians are the 24th ranked scoring offense this season. As a team, they are batting .252, with an OBP of .314. In Cleveland’s last ten games, they are 12th in home runs, having gone deep nine times in that span.

Over the Guardians’ past five contests, Oscar Gonzalez has been the team’s leader in hits, batting .417. This season, Gonzalez is hitting .233 and has tallied five RBIs.