MLB Baseball BETTING PREVIEW - Cleveland Guardians @ Chicago White Sox

MLB Baseball

2026-10-07 - Cleveland Guardians at Chicago White Sox

A Sports Betting Preview by FirstDown

Cleveland Guardians @ Chicago White Sox
United States : MLB Playoff Divisional Round Game 3
Wednesday 7th October 2026 - Scheduled 4pm EST
9pm (British Time)

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Preview

After losing well over three hundred games in the previous three seasons, the Chicago White Sox finished with a winning record in 2026 and returned to the Playoffs. This is a group that refuses to end the journey and four straight road wins have put the White Sox in a position where one more win would take them through to the American League Championship Series.

The atmosphere at Rate Field is going to be pretty vibrant as the Chicago White Sox play their first Playoff game at home since 2021.

Wins in both road games against American League Central Winners Cleveland Guardians have put the Chicago White Sox in a very strong position in this Series. Very few teams have failed to progress after taking a 2-0 lead in a best of five game Series, but the White Sox won't be thinking too far ahead and instead will want to stay on top of the Guardians.

Once again the White Sox are going to take a bullpen approach to a Playoff games and you cannot blame them considering the successes they have already had in the post-season.

Sean Newcomb finished with a 3.09 ERA in the regular season with the large majority of his sixty appearances coming out of the bullpen. He has already pitched in two games in the Playoffs, including throwing 2 Innings in the Game 2 win in this Divisional Round Series.

The pitcher has a lot of experience in facing this Cleveland batting lineup and Sean Newcomb will point out that he had a very good record when pitching against them at home.

Chicago will not plan for any approach after Sean Newcomb, but instead will allow the situation to determine their options. Game 4, if needed, is to be played on Thursday and so key relievers will not be used if the White Sox feel this game is getting away from them.

However, if they are in a position where they believe the Series could be won, the likes of Hagen Smith and Erick Fedde could become very important.

After failing to win either of the first two games of this Divisional Round Series with conventional starters, the Cleveland Guardians will take some inspiration from the Chicago White Sox and go with an opener of their own.

Daniel Espino will be starting the game for the Guardians, but the expectation is that they will turn the ball over to Joey Cantillo pretty quickly and look for a long relief session from the third year pitcher.

Joey Cantillo has an 11-9 record and 3.62 ERA from his thirty-three appearances in 2026 and thirty of those have been in starts. The last three appearances in the regular season were all in this long reliever position as the Guardians begun to prepare Joey Cantillo for how they wished to use him and they will take confidence from the fact he threw 15 Innings out of the bullpen and did not give up a run.

All four previous outings in the Playoffs have been out of the bullpen and Joey Cantillo has a 0-1 record and 3.60 ERA in those.

Back in August, Joey Cantillo completed a single Inning in this ballpark against the Chicago White Sox and allowed one run in that time on the mound.

The White Sox have won seven of the last ten between these Divisional rivals.

Prediction

All hands will be on deck for the Cleveland Guardians as they bid to extend the Divisional Round Series to a fourth game, but it looks like the bulk of the Innings will be handled by Joey Cantillo.

He ended the season in fine form as a reliever and so there will be confidence in his abilities, but Cantillo and the Guardians will need the batting lineup to find a way to get something going.

They were not able to offer the starters much support in the first two games of the Series and the Chicago White Sox will continue to use the depth of the pitching rotation.

Those players have bamboozled Cleveland, while the White Sox have found the big Hits to back up the pitching crew.

Sweeping a Playoff Series is never easy, but the Chicago White Sox will be playing in front of a fevered home crowd and they can use the energy and intensity to make sure they produce the Hits needed to send themselves into the American League Championship Series.

The Pick :

Chicago White Sox 4-2 Cleveland Guardians

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

I'll back Chicago White Sox to Win at -112 with Bookmaker.eu