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Can’t predict baseball. Last night the Indians fell down 9-2 against the Texas Rangers. They had Carlos Carrasco, one of their top pitchers, get rocked and then were facing Cole Hamels with an eight-run deficit. Didn’t matter.
The Indians rallied for another 14 runs and won the game. The interesting thing about this comeback is they only hit one homerun during the run. They did it mostly with walks and clutch hitting. The Indians bullpen shut things down from there and showed why it is one of the most feared in the league. The win gave Cleveland a 0.5 game lead in the AL Central and I think it’s getting to be the time of the year where they don’t relinquish it.
The divisions are becoming more and more clear with the standings beginning to make more sense. The Indians +51 run differential is the best in the Central by far, but they have been behind Minnesota (-41 run differential) for much of the season. These things will start catching up with teams and we’ll start seeing the true contenders show themselves.
Tonight the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds begin a series and you have to think that Eric Thames is excited for this one. Thames has 20 homeruns on the season with 8 of them being against the Reds. The team as a whole has crushed the Reds this year which is why I was surprised to see them as a slight underdog. Junior Guerra is one of their best pitchers and Thames could feast again. Give me Milwaukee +114 tonight.
Am I missing something with the Rays -103 over the Pirates? The Rays have the better offense, better pitcher, crush righties and the Pittsburgh has been a worse offensive team at home? Tampa is one of the top Wild Card contenders in the AL while Pittsburgh is six games under .500 and likely to start selling. This game feels like the Rays should be a much larger favorite than they are and I’m all over it.
A seemingly good pitching match-up could turn bad tonight with Luis Severino and Jose Quintana going at it in Chicago. Severino has gotten slapped around a bit in his last two starts while Quintana has really struggled at home this year, although he has looked better of late. New York’s offense has been quiet as of late so a match-up like this feels like the time they’d break out. The zig when you expect them to zag. The over 8 runs seems like a very likely scenario here.
The Braves Sean Newcomb has looked good in his first few major league starts and tonight gets to play in San Diego. Jhoulys Chacin has a 4.95 ERA on the year and I think the Braves offense can get to him. They hit righties well and this is the Padres. Honestly, the Padres are built to lose and I try to jump on any opportunity where they are favored that I can. Especially with guys like Chacin on the mound. Give me the Braves +106.
