The New York Mets love to go all-in. They spent over a billion dollars in the offseason and made further upgrades at the trade deadline. That hasn’t stopped them from struggling immensely. After starting the year 45-24, they are 18-27 since. The skid includes two straight losses to the Cleveland Guardians, who will go for the sweep on Wednesday.
Cleveland is heading the other way. Now 18-7 over its last 25 games, it’s launched itself back into the Wild Card race. Another strong week could see the team leapfrog the struggling New York Yankees.
The New York Mets are -176 moneyline favorites on DraftKings Sportsbook. The over/under is set at eight runs. Let’s dig into a preview, prediction and best bet for this Guardians-Mets game.
Guardians at Mets prediction, preview
It’s a duel of former first round picks on the mound for this matinee.
Gavin Williams toes the rubber for Cleveland. After a disappointing 2024 season, he’s rebounded very well with a 3.33 ERA over 22 starts this year. He still hasn’t fixed the walk issues — Williams has issued 62 free passes, leading the majors — but he’s navigated well around traffic. Armed with a scorching fastball and sweeper/curve combo, he looks like another rousing success from Cleveland’s vaunted pitching lab.
David Peterson is an equal match for Williams and more. After a strong 2024 season, he backed it up with an All-Star campaign this year. The underlying numbers don’t support his 2.83 ERA, but he has an elite ground-ball rate due to his superb sinker. That does well against most teams, and especially against these Guardians. As a team, Cleveland has one of the worst batting averages in the sport. A lack of bat-to-ball skills doesn’t play well against a worm-burner like Peterson.
These teams also possess two of the best bullpens in the sport. Even without Emmanuel Clase, Cleveland is deep and talented on the back end. New York loaded up in a big way at the trade deadline, adding multiple capable late-inning relievers. To me, this all adds up to an under.
