After the Wild Card series ended with a brisk pace, as always, the Division Series are set to get going on Saturday. The home team is favored in all four games, but if the Wild Card round and recent MLB postseasons are anything to go by, there is no sure thing.
Pitching studs are not hard to come by in these series openers. Gerrit Cole, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Zack Wheeler are among those taking the mound on Saturday.
The home teams that got byes into this round not only have the edge of not having to play the unpredictable best-of-three Wild Card series, but get to line up their pitching for this series. Meanwhile, the New York Mets already played three postseason games and are turning to Kodai Senga in Game 1. Senga has only pitched 5 1/3 innings this season due to a shoulder injury that kept him out until July. After one start, he suffered a calf injury and is just now returning from that. The 31-year-old was an All-Star last season, but who knows what he can do off of injury?
That’s just one storyline to watch for as the MLB postseason rolls on. Here’s a look at the odds, pitching matchups and projections for Saturday’s four postseason games.
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Series odds: Guardians -130; Tigers +110
Game 1 pitching matchup: Tyler Holton (Detroit) vs. Tanner Bibee (Cleveland)
How to watch Tigers at Guardians
- Venue: Progressive Field — Cleveland
- Time: 1:08 p.m. ET
- TV: TBS
Series odds: Phillies -185; Mets +150
Game 1 pitching matchup: Kodai Senga (NYM) vs. Zack Wheeler (PHI)
How to watch Mets at Phillies
- Venue: Citizens Bank Park — Philadelphia
- Time: 4:08 p.m. ET
- TV: FOX
- Streaming: Fubo (try for free)
Series odds: Yankees -210; Royals +170
Game 1 pitching matchup: Michael Wacha (KC) vs. Gerrit Cole (NYY)
How to watch Royals at Yankees
- Venue: Yankee Stadium — New York
- Time: 6:38 p.m. ET
- TV: TBS
Series odds: Dodgers -135; Padres +115
Game 1 pitching matchup: Dylan Cease (SD) vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LA)
How to watch Padres at Dodgers
- Venue: Dodger Stadium — Los Angeles
- Time: 8:38 p.m. ET
- TV: FS1
- Streaming: Fubo (try for free)
MLB Playoff projections from THE BAT X
In the tables below, you’ll see details for each MLB matchup, then a lot of numbers (which are updated all day):
- “Moneyline” shows each team’s odds on BetMGM.
- “Implied Win%” is the chance a team has to win based on those BetMGM odds.
- “THE BAT X win%” is the chance a team has to win based on EV Analytics’ projections.
- “Cash Line” is how THE BAT X would price each team’s odds.
- “Value” is the percentage difference between the odds chances and our projections.
The higher the value percentage, the better — which you can easily see from the color coding from red (bad pick) through to green (good pick).
Note: On mobile, you may have to scroll to see the color-coded “Value” column on the far right of the first set of tables.
Another note: If you’re seeing old data or the tables aren’t showing up, you may need to “hard refresh” this page, or you may have an ad blocker or other software blocking the tables from loading.
(Photo of Gerrit Cole: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
