Yankees-Guardians Game 5 will be battle of bullpens, plus other best bets for Monday

Something incredible is happening tonight. Two professional sports teams who played a postseason game Sunday night drove to the airport, flew to another city, and will play another postseason game tonight. All without two or three days off in between games.

I had no idea that was possible. I don’t know if any other leagues should notice this — perhaps one that begins its regular season tomorrow — but this is clearly an incredible scientific breakthrough. It’s up there with figuring out the Earth revolves around the sun, curing polio and landing on the moon.

Kudos to everybody at MLB and Mother Nature for making it happen. And kudos to you for reading the following stories.

• The Texans fired their VP of football operations.
• The vibes surrounding Notre Dame aren’t great.
• We have a preseason AP Poll in college basketball.

Now let’s bet on a scientific breakthrough that will change our lives forever.

All times Eastern, and all odds via Caesars Sportsbook

🔥 The Hot Ticket

Guardians at Yankees, 7:07 p.m. | TV: TBS

• Key Trend: The Guardians bullpen has an ERA of 0.73 this postseason 
• The Pick: Guardians (+130)

The good news is we have a win-or-go-home game tonight in the Division Series, as the Yankees and Guardians were kind enough to provide baseball fans with at least one series that went the distance. The bad news is the pitching matchup isn’t the kind you would hope for from such a game.

It’s Jameson Taillon against Aaron Civale. No offense to those gentlemen, but considering the starters on both teams, that’s one of the weakest possible combinations. Aaron Civale had a 4.92 ERA this season, though his advanced stats suggest it should’ve been considerably better. The contact he allows is loud, and there’s been too much loud contact this year. Taillon has a below-average strikeout rate but excellent control, and like Civale, he allows a lot of hard contact. I’d say take the over, but I don’t expect either one of them to stick around long! Managers are always quick with the hook in elimination games,.

This will likely develop into a battle of the bullpens, and if that’s the case, give me Cleveland. The Guardians’ bullpen was fantastic during the season, and it’s been better in the postseason. The Yankees pen was great in the regular season but is missing a lot of key players in the postseason. Wandy Peralta has pitched three straight days, and players like Jonathan Loaisiga, Clay Holmes, Lou Trivino and Clarke Schmidt will be pitching for the third time in four days if the Yankees need them tonight. Cleveland has needed its pen as well, but Emmanuel Clase and James Karinchak haven’t pitched since Friday.

Here’s what SportsLine is saying about the game: The Projection Model doesn’t see a lot of value anywhere tonight, but it does have a slight lean toward the over.

💰 Monday Night Football Picks

Broncos at Chargers, 8:15 p.m | TV: ESPN

The Pick: Broncos Under 20.5 points (-120) — It’s hard to have faith in the Broncos’ offense right now, not just because we, as a football-loving nation, have already been exposed to it too many times by primetime spotlight broadcasts (seriously, can’t the government intervene to get the Broncos back at 4 p.m. ET every week where they belong? Enough is enough).

Anyway, it’s hard to have faith in the Broncos’ offense right now. Russell Wilson has a partially torn lat, while its best running back, Javonte Williams, and starting left tackle Garett Bolles are gone for the season. And it’s not like the Broncos were playing well with them! This offense ranks 30th in the league in success rate and 31st in points per drive. It’s also the worst red-zone offense in the league when it does manage to move the ball downfield.

The Pick: Mike Williams Over 68.5 Receiving Yards (-120) — We took the over on Mike Williams receiving prop earlier this season when the Chargers played Kansas City in Week 2, and it cashed easily. We’re back on the horse tonight because the totals are still too low. Keenan Allen hasn’t played since Week 1 and is listed as doubtful tonight. There hasn’t been a player in the league this season who has played after being listed as doubtful. That means Williams will continue being the primary receiver in the Chargers’ offense.

Williams has caught at least seven passes for 100 yards in three of the four games since Week 2. The only game he didn’t was in the Chargers’ 38-10 loss to Jacksonville, where seemingly nothing went right for the offense. So to get the total at only 68.5 feels like cheating. Of course, the reason it’s so low is that Denver has had one of the best passing defenses in the league, but the best QB the Broncos have faced so far is Derek Carr. I’m not sure how seriously we should take those numbers.

🔒 SportsLine Pick of the Day: SportsLine’s RJ White is 17-6-1 in his last 24 ATS picks involving the Chargers and he has a spread play available for tonight’s game.