Pick on the Moneyline for Angels-Guardians on May 13

It has been a slow start for the Cleveland Guardians, entering Saturday with a losing record after winning the American League Central last season and will look to get things trending upwards on Saturday when they host the Los Angeles Angels.

Los Angeles Angels (-125, 8.5) vs. Cleveland Guardians

The Guardians send Cal Quantrill to the mound, who seems to do just enough to get the team to victory as his numbers fall short of extraordinary with a 3.89 ERA with 2.7 walks and 4.8 strikeouts per nine innings while allowing three runs or fewer in five of his last six starts.

Despite lacking eye-popping numbers, the Guardians are 21-3 in Quantrill’s last 24 regular season starts, much of it thanks to a bullpen on the backend that has the best ERA in the league since the 2022 All-Star Break and second in ERA for the 2023 season.

The Angels bullpen has been a surprise thus far in 2023, ranked fifth in ERA at, but have an expected fielding independent (xFIP) of 4.27, which ranked 17th. This is an indicator of possible future regression and was the second-largest xFIP to ERA differential among bullpens in the league.

In front of that Angels bullpen will be Reid Detmers getting the start, who has increased his strikeouts per nine innings rate from 8.5 last season to 11.4 this season, but his walks per nine innings rate rising from 3.2 to 3.6 has nullified the extra strikeouts and heightened his ERA to 5.10.

While Detmers gets to face a Guardians lineup that has struggled to generate offense, ranking last among the 30 MLB team in on-base plus slugging and home runs, they do put the ball in play with the fewest strikeouts of any American League team.

When the Guardians made the playoffs last season, they had the second-fewest home runs of any team in the league and with the consistency of Quantrill coupled with continued great pitching in the bullpen, the Guardians lineup will provide just enough support to the pitchers for a win on Saturday.

The Play: Guardians +105