After taking the World Series champion Houston Astros to seven games in last year's American League Championship Series and adding the reigning National League home run champ to their lineup in the offseason, the New York Yankees have become co-favorites to win the pennant at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.The Yankees and Astros are both listed at plus-275 (bet $100 to win $275) on the odds to win the AL pennant and therefore have earned the status as preseason favorites to meet in the 2018 ALCS.Houston's Justin Verlander was the difference between the two teams in their 2017 ALDS matchup, as he went 2-0 versus New York after allowing just one run and 10 hits in 16 innings with two walks and 21 strikeouts. Verlander came to the Astros late in the season from the Detroit Tigers and ended up winning his first World Series title.Verlander will be joined in this year's starting rotation by another new acquisition in Gerrit Cole, who came over from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the offseason. The big move for the Yankees was picking up outfielder Giancarlo Stanton (59 home runs) from the Miami Marlins.The Cleveland Indians (+325) and Boston Red Sox (+600) are also in the mix to take the AL pennant after winning the AL Central and AL East titles, respectively. Cleveland was favored to win the pennant for the second straight year last season before getting upset 3-2 by New York in the ALDS. Meanwhile, Boston fell to Houston in four games.In the NL, the Los Angeles Dodgers are solid favorites on the odds to win the NL pennant for the second year in a row at plus-225. The Dodgers lost to the Astros 4-3 in the World Series, but they got there by defeating the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS after meeting them for the second consecutive postseason. Chicago is the plus-375 third choice on the Vegas odds to win its second pennant in three seasons behind Los Angeles and the Washington Nationals (+350).The Nationals have never won a playoff series and lost to the Cubs 3-2 in the 2017 ALDS despite earning home-field advantage. Consequently, Washington did not bring back manager Dusty Baker, replacing him with Chicago bench coach Dave Martinez. For more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this weeks top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.
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