The Colorado Rockies are 27-78, on pace to finish 42-120, one game ahead of last year’s Chicago White Sox for the worst 162-game regular season in MLB history. Coincidentally, the 2024 White Sox also had a 27-78 record at this point in the season.
Colorado hopes to give itself more cushion against that record with a three-game midweek road series against the Cleveland Guardians, who, at 52-53, are about as mediocre as it comes.
In the 6:40 p.m. ET series opener, the Rockies will start Bradley Blalock, while the Slade Cecconi will toe the rubber for the Guardians.
Let’s break down this matchup with some odds and lines at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Colorado Rockies at Cleveland Guardians prediction, preview
Colorado won five of its first seven games after the All-Star break, including its first shutout since May 15, 2024, before collapsing with an 18-0 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday in which they managed just two hits and two walks. Still, the Rockies have to be happy with their progress, given that they’ve had the seventh-best OPS in baseball so far in the second half and gone a respectable 20-45 with a .696 OPS since replacing Bud Black with Warren Schaeffer. Cleveland, too, has a winning record since the break and could be a team to watch in advance of Thursday’s trade deadline, with All-Star outfielder Steven Kwan coveted league-wide.
Blalock is in good form by his standards, producing two of the best starts of his two-year MLB career by game score the last two times he took the mound. In those starts, he combined for 11 innings pitched, conceding 14 hits and three runs while walking one, striking out one, and hitting two batsmen. That those were two of his career-best efforts isn’t ideal; through 14 outings (11 starts), his career ERA sits at a putrid 7.18, and even his 5.18 ERA mark on the road is far from good. His biggest strengths are his walk rate and his ground ball rate, and unfortunately for him, the Guardians hit grounders at the sixth-lowest clip.
Cecconi, meanwhile, has clearly taken advantage of leaving the NL West; after being worth negative-1.1 WAR last season for the Arizona Diamondbacks, the 26-year-old has had a solid 3.76 ERA in 12 starts, and he’s contributed 1.1 WAR on the season. He’s also been in pretty good form, conceding two or fewer earned runs in seven of his last nine starts. Though he’s prone to lots of hard contact — he ranks in the seventh percentile in average exit velocity, the 10th percentile in hard-hit percentage, and the sixth percentile in barrel rate — Colorado hasn’t hit the ball particularly hard and has posted just a .602 OPS away from Coors Field.
Colorado Rockies at Cleveland Guardians pick, best bet
Best Bet: Under 14.5 Strikeouts Thrown (-125)
Though the Rockies have the league’s highest strikeout rate, neither of these pitchers are known for missing bats. Cecconi has struck out just two batters in each of his last two games, while Blalock has recorded just nine all season.
Strong Lean: Steven Kwan 2+ Hits (+160)
Though the contact king has slumped somewhat over his last 25 games, recording just a .216/.294/.353 slash line over that span, going against Blalock, who induces whiffs on just 13.5% of swings and has allowed a .996 OPS to lefties in his career, should help. Kwan will put on a show in what could be his last game as a Guardian.
