{"id":661279,"date":"2026-04-03T18:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661279\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T18:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:24:16","slug":"cubs-vs-guardians-prediction-odds-probable-pitchers-prop-bets-for-friday-april-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661279\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs vs. Guardians Prediction, Odds, Probable Pitchers, Prop Bets for Friday, April 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">The Chicago Cubs are 3-3 to start the season, but are coming off a series win against the Angels. The Cleveland Guardians are also fresh off a series win, beating the defending World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">The Cubs and Guardians will face off in an interleague showdown on Friday. Let&#8217;s dive into the odds and my best bets for this game.<\/p>\n<p>Cubs vs. Guardians Odds, Run Line, and Total<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7n\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/44ZqGYj\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">Run Line<\/p>\n<p>Cubs -1.5 (+150)Guardians +1.5 (-182)<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7w\">Moneyline<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"82\">Total<\/p>\n<p>OVER 7.5 (-112)UNDER 7.5 (-108)Cubs vs. Guardians Probable PitchersChicago: Cade Horton, RHP (1-0, 2.84 ERA)Cleveland: Joey Cantillo, LHP (0-0, 4.91 ERA)Cubs vs. Guardians How to WatchDate: Friday, April 3Time: 4:10 p.m. ETVenue: Progressive FieldHow to Watch (TV): Marquee Sports Network, Guardians.TV Presented by Progressive, WKYC 3 Cubs record: 3-3Guardians record: 4-3Cubs vs. Guardians Best Prop BetCade Horton OVER 3.5 Strikeouts (-136)<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8q\">The Guardians have had a bit of a strikeout issue to start the season. They have struck out on 27.8% of their plate appearances, which is the seventh-highest strikeout total through the first week of the MLB season. Cade Horton&#8217;s strikeout rate was at just 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings last season, but he did hit four strikeouts in 6.1 innings pitched in his first start of 2026. Let&#8217;s bet on him to reach four strikeouts again this afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Cubs vs. Guardians Prediction and Pick<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-18\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8w\">I have trouble trusting the Guardians&#8217; offense in this game, despite coming off a series win against the Dodgers. They rank just 28th in the Majors in OPS and 26th in wRC+ through the first week of the season. The Cubs haven&#8217;t been hot to start the season, but their numbers are far above the Guarians, including ranking 15th in OPS and 14th in wRC+.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-19\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8z\">Horton also looks like a great candidate to improve on his rookie season when he finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting. He should have a favorable matchup in the second start of his sophomore campaign.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-20\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"92\">Pick: Cubs -118 <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/44ZqGYj\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" target=\"_blank\">via FanDuel<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-22\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"97\">Create a new FanDuel Sportsbook account, and you can get<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/44ZqGYj\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> $300 in bonus bets back on losing bets every day for 10 days.<\/a> Download the FanDuel app and deposit a minimum of $5 to claim your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/betting\/sportsbook-promos\/fanduel-promo-code\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FanDuel promo code <\/a>offer today.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-23\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9a\">Follow Iain on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/IainMacBets\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/iainmacbets\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-24\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9d\">Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-25\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9g\">If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-26\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9j\">You can check out all of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/betstamp.app\/u\/iainmacbets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iain&#8217;s bets here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs are 3-3 to start the season, but are coming off a series win against the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-661279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116342178702308411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}