Cleveland Guardians vs. Baltimore Orioles June 3 Betting Preview

Friday night features the first of a three-game series between the Cleveland Guardians (22-24) and the Baltimore Orioles (22-31). The Orioles will host this one at Camden Yards, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm ET.

After sweeping the Kansas City Royals earlier in the week, the Guardians enjoyed a day off on Thursday. In the last game of their sweep, on Wednesday, Cleveland blanked Kansas City 4-0.

For Baltimore, they come into this one off of a series loss to the Mariners at home. They lost the finale on Thursday 7-6 in 10 innings. Jordan Lyles gave up five runs (four earned) in five innings while Jorge Lopez took the loss in relief.

Betting Odds

The Guardians are the favorite despite playing on the road. They are -136 to win while the Orioles’ moneyline sits at +116. The runline features Baltimore +1.5 (-154), and the over/under for total runs is 8.5.

You can bet on baseball in Ohio right now with betJACK Training Camp. Sign up today to get 100 free tokens. 

Pitching Matchup

The Guardians will send ace Shane Bieber to the mound for the first game of the series. This season, he is 2-3 with a 3.19 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, and 51 strikeouts over 53.2 innings of work. In his last start, he picked up the win over Detroit after allowing just one earned run over eight innings.

Baltimore will counter with 27-year-old lefty Bruce Zimmermann. In 10 starts this season, Zimmermann is 2-3 with a 4.53 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, and 41 strikeouts in 51.2 innings of work. In his last three starts combined, he has given up 15 earned runs in 15.1 innings.

Guardians Trying To Extend Winning Streak

With their sweep over the Royals, the Guardians have now won three games in a row and will try for a fourth on Friday. They will also try to improve on their road record, which sits at a dismal 11-16.

This will be the first time that any Guardians hitter has seen Bruce Zimmermann, but against lefties this season, Andres Gimenez has been one of their most solid hitters. In fact, in 23 at bats against southpaws, he is hitting .391/.417/.522 with a home run and four runs batted in.

Overall, Cleveland’s best hitter has been Jose Ramirez. He is hitting .292/.393/.632 with a team-high 13 home runs, 52 runs batted in, 30 runs scored, and seven stolen bases.

Orioles Have Been Surprisingly Good At Home

At 22-30, the Orioles again find themselves in the cellar of the AL East, 14.5 games out of first place. For as bad as they have been on the road (9-18), though, they have been ok at home (13-12). They will try to stay above .500 at Camden Yards when they host the Guardians Friday.

Offensively, Anthony Santander leads the team in many of the power stats. Despite hitting just .231/.335/.409, he leads the team with nine home runs and 29 runs batted in. He is hitless against Shane Bieber in three at bats, though.

The only players with any success against Bieber include Robinson Chirinos (two for three with a home run) and Rougned Odor (one for four with a home run).

Cleveland Needs To Take Advantage Of Soft Part Of Schedule

This is the second series in a row that the Guardians face off with a team that is dead last in their division. They were able to take advantage of it against the Royals as they took all three, and they need to do the same against a struggling Orioles team.

Baltimore has shown signs of growth this season, but they are still a year or two away from truly being a contending team.

Especially with Shane Bieber on the mound, the Guardians should be able to take Game 1 and extend their win streak to four.