MLB playoffs odds, model predictions, schedule for Monday’s ALDS Game 2: Tigers at Guardians, Royals at Yankees

The home teams won both Game 1s to begin the American League Division Series on Saturday. The Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees are clearly at the top of the odds, but Tarik Skubal takes over on Monday, making the Detroit Tigers the favorite to win Game 2 in Cleveland.

Skubal is the AL Cy Young favorite and already has a playoff gem under his belt. He pitched six scoreless innings against Houston in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series. It’s just a 1-0 series lead for Cleveland after a dominant 7-0 win in Game 1 that featured five Guardians runs in the first inning, but this almost feels like a must-win for Detroit. The series heads to Detroit after Game 2 on Monday, but Skubal is the Tigers’ clear ace and the pitcher who has the team and fans waiting for victory every time he pitches.

If Skubal leads the Tigers to a win in Game 2, the Tigers will go home with the possibility that Skubal can pitch a Game 5 on four days of rest if necessary. The difference compared to a 0-2 deficit in the series is enormous.

Meanwhile, the Yankees didn’t have a great performance from Gerrit Cole in Game 1, but they won a battle of the bullpens against the Kansas City Royals. The Yankees are still favorites to win the AL pennant. Will Carlos Rodon deliver in Game 2 and bring the Royals to the brink of elimination?

Here’s a look at The Bat X’s odds and predictions for Monday’s ALDS Game 2s.

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Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Guardians

Series odds: Guardian -225; Tigers +180

The Guardians lead the series 1-0

Game 2 Pitching Matchup: Tarik Skubal (DET) vs. Matthew Boyd (CLE)

Here’s how to watch Tigers on Guardians

• Venue: Progressive Field – Cleveland
• Time: 4:08 p.m. ET
• TV: TBS

Kansas City Royals at New York Yankees

Series odds: Yankees -450; Royals +340

The Yankees lead the series 1-0

Game 2 Pitching Matchup: Cole Ragans (KC) vs. Carlos Rodon (NYY)

Here’s how to watch the Royals at the Yankees

• Venue: Yankee Stadium – New York
• Time: 7:38 p.m. ET
• TV: TBS

THE BAT X’s MLB Playoff Predictions

In the tables below you’ll see details of each MLB matchup followed by lots of numbers (which are updated throughout the day):

• “money line” shows the odds of each team on BetMGM.
• “Implied profit %” is the chance a team has of winning based on these BetMGM odds.
• “THE BAT X wins %” is a team’s chance of winning based on EV Analytics predictions.
• “Cash Line” Here’s how THE BAT X would rate each team’s odds.
• “Value” is the percentage difference between the odds and our forecasts.

The higher the value percentage, the better – which you can easily see by the color coding from red (bad selection) to green (good selection).

Note: On mobile devices, you may need to scroll to view the color-coded Value column at the far right of the first set of tables.

Another note: If you see old data or the tables don’t appear, you may need to “hard refresh” this page or an ad blocker or other software is blocking the tables from loading.

(Photo by Tarik Skubal: Tim Warner / Getty Images)