The Los Angeles Angels take on the Cleveland Guardians. Our MLB odds series has our Angels Guardians prediction and pick. Find out how to watch Angels Guardians.

The Los Angeles Angels are having a bad season which just got worse earlier this week. The Angels learned that franchise player and MLB superstar Mike Trout will require surgery and will be out indefinitely. This is not a short-term absence, meaning that Trout will once again miss a large chunk of games, something which has happened in the last several seasons of his brilliant yet snake-bitten career. The Halos already lost Shohei Ohtani in the offseason. Now they're without Trout. They undeniably become a weaker, less potent team without their main man. It will be a very heavy lift for the Angels to not only compete for a wild card berth in the American League, but to merely reach a .500 record (81-81) over the course of 162 regular-season games. The challenge for new manager Ron Washington is considerable. The Angels have to find a way of playing and pitching which can guide them through these next few uncertain months.

The Cleveland Guardians have been one of the big stories of the first five weeks of the 2024 MLB season. The Guardians, under first-year manager Stephen Vogt — who is relieving Terry Francona — sprinted out of the blocks by winning 17 of their first 23 games this season. After that 17-6 start, the Guardians have cooled off by losing six of nine, but they're still at 20-12, a record few people expected them to have through 31 games. The American League Central is a fascinating division. The Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers look a lot better than they did one year ago, but big starts in April don't automatically mean that teams will continue to perform well in the next five months of the season. The challenge for the Guardians and the other fast-starting teams in the A.L. Central is to sustain what they have started, and the month of May will shed a lot of light on how well these teams will fare in that pursuit. Cleveland's pitching has been tremendous in the first five weeks of the season, but the Guardians did run into trouble against the Houston Astros, giving up eight or more runs in two separate losses. We'll see if the Guardians can steady the ship this weekend versus the Angels. They didn't get off to a good start on Friday in a 6-0 loss.

Here are the Angels-Guardians MLB odds, courtesy of FanDuel. 

MLB Odds: Angels-Guardians Odds

Los Angeles Angels: +1.5 (-188)

Cleveland Guardians: -1.5 (+155)

Over: 8 (-115)

Under: 8 (-105)

How To Watch Angels vs Guardians

TV: Bally Sports West (Angels) / Bally Sports Great Lakes (Guardians) / MLB Extra Innings

Stream: MLB.tv

Time: 6:10 p.m. ET/3:10 p.m. PT

*Watch Angels-Guardians LIVE on fuboTV (click for a free trial)*

Why The Angels Could Cover The Spread

The Angels have gotten really good pitching in their last two games, and they have competed well throughout the week. They very nearly won two of three games against the powerful Philadelphia Phillies, losing two very tough games. The final loss in that series was a 2-1 defeat in which the Angels hit a warning-track flyout with the tying and winning runs on base with two out in the bottom of the ninth. That was a razor-close defeat but still a superb demonstration of pitching from the Halos. Then they came into Cleveland on Friday and shut out the Guardians, 6-0. Mike Trout is not on the roster, but the Angels are playing hard against 20-win opponents (Philadelphia and now Cleveland). Los Angeles has played better than Cleveland over the past several days. That should be worth something.

Why The Guardians Could Cover The Spread

The Angels played well on Friday. The Guardians have been bad for most of this week. This is a bounce-back situation in which Cleveland should play a good baseball game. It's that simple.

Final Angels-Guardians Prediction & Pick

The Guardians are getting a large plus-money price on the run line. Go for it. Take Cleveland.

Final Angels-Guardians Prediction & Pick: Guardians -1.5