Cleveland Indians (26-19) vs Boston Red Sox (28-19)
Cleveland has to be the biggest surprise team on the positive side in the American League so far this season, leading the A.L Central heading into Wednesday.
Thursday May 23
Fenway Park
7:10PM
Probable Pitchers:
CLE: Zach McAllister
BOS: Ryan Dempster
Moneyline: Boston -146, Cleveland +136 at SBO
O/U: 9
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Cleveland
They beefed up their lineup in the offseason and the results have been there as they led the Majors in homers heading into yesterday, thanks to the likes of slugging 3B Mark Reynolds and his team leading 12 bombs.
The pitching has been improved too as the Indians have a team E.R.A under 4.00. Justin Masterson has been brilliant at times but mostly they are getting solid performances from throughout the staff.
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One of the primary reasons for the Indians surprising performance this year has been the high quality innings they are getting from second year starter Zach McAllister.
The righty sported a serviceable 4.24 ERA in his first full season in 2012 but has shaved that down to 2.65 this season so far.
He has been very consistent too having not given up more than 3 ERs in any start this season. The Indians have won his last 4 starts but they lost in an April start he had against Boston. His shortest outing of the season at just 5 innings.
Boston
It is dejavu with New York and Boston at the top of the American League East standings right now. This was supposed to be a season the other teams in the division might win out but Boston has been playing well thanks to the return to form of pitchers Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester.[dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
In fact heading into Wednesday night’s games against the other Sox they had the third best record in the league. This series opener will be interesting too because it is the first game back at Fenway for Cleveland skipper Terry Francona.
The Red Sox signed righty Ryan Dempster in the offseason to mixed reviews. That is because Dempster was quite bad after joining the Rangers last year after dominating in the National League. This season he has been merely adequate (maybe) for a Boston team that has been playing well.
His strikeouts and batting average against are where you want them to be but he is walking too many batters. Case in point, his last outing where he walked 6 over 4.2 innings.
The only thing that saved him from taking the loss were the 12 runs the Red Sox put up.
It is not a great value spot but I think Boston is the play here. My instinct is telling me that McAllister is likely to regress while Dempster has room to improve. I think the return of Tito is a non factor and like Boston to win Thursday.
Probably better values on the board even though it is a strangely small card.
Over/Under: Over
Score Prediction: Boston 7 – Cleveland 5
