ESPN Baseball Red Sox vs. Indians Preview

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

MLB: Westbrook building confidence

Cleveland Indians backers have to like what they’ve seen from veteran hurler Jake Westbrook to start the season.

Coming off a miserable 6-9 season in which he never looked comfortable on the mound, Westbrook has given the Indians two solid efforts to start the season.

Westbrook is the projected starter as the Indians open a brief two-game home set with the Boston Red Sox on ESPN on Monday. First pitch is set for 7:05 pm ET.

With a 2.76 ERA after two starts you’d expect a pitcher to be 2-0 but Westbrook is just 1-1 heading into this matchup. Westbrook pitched a gem in his season opener, giving up just two runs in 7 1/3 innings but was booked for the loss as his teammates backed him with just one run in a 2-1 defeat to the Chicago White Sox.

In his second outing, Westbrook pitched all nine innings to earn a 4-3 decision over the L.A. Angels on just 95 pitches. Combined with a fantastic spring in which he never gave up a run, this start is a dramatic turnaround from last season in which Westbrook gave up 18 runs over his first 12 2/3 innings of work.

The Indians will likely be facing Red Sox’ pitcher Jon Lester in Monday’s opener. Lester, who pitched for the Red Sox in Japan, is 1-2 on the season.

Lester lasted just four innings in his first appearance, Boston’s second game in Japan, as he gave up five hits and four runs on 83 pitches against the Oakland Athletics. He looked much better his second time out as he threw 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball against the A’s as the two teams concluded the series they began in Tokyo. Lester got the victory as the Red Sox cruised to a 5-0 win.

In his most recent outing, Lester took the loss as the Detroit Tigers offense erupted for the team’s first victory of the season. The Tigers roughed up Lester for four runs in 5 1/3 innings, en route to a 7-2 win.

Much like the team they played in the AL Championship last year, the Red Sox are trying to get on track after a slow start. Surprisingly, both of these teams have struggled to score runs. The Red Sox are 16th in the Majors with 4.2 runs scored per game with an offensive lineup that was fifth in the league with a 5.35 runs per game average last year.

Add in the fact that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez had combined for just two home runs in the first 10 games of the season and you can see why the Red Sox offense has been struggling to put up runs so far.

Cleveland was eighth in the majors last season, averaging 5.00 runs per game but they averaged just 4.11 per game in their first nine games. That put them 20th in the league while their runs against, 4.42 per game, was also 20th heading into weekend action.

Make sure you check the latest betting trends and statistics and then get the odds before placing your bets.