MLB Baseball
2012-05-12 - Cleveland Indians at Boston Red Sox
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Saturday 12 May 2012 - First Pitch 7:10pm ET
12:10am (British Standard Time)
Preview
The Boston Red Sox (13-19) finally won a home game when taking game 2 of this series as they and the Cleveland Indians (18-14) have split the first two games in this four game series.
Boston took the game last night 7-5 as they bounced back from a 3-8 opening game loss, but there is still a lot of work to be done to turn the boos into cheers at Fenway Park. Injuries have really hurt the Red Sox as David Ortiz became the latest in the batting line up to have to leave early last night and his status is set as day-to-day as he figures he could miss this one tonight.
The Red Sox will need Felix Doubront to bring another quality start to the mound as they cannot feasibly rely on their bullpen to save the team. Doubront is 2-1 with a 5.01 ERA this season, although this is the first time he will be facing the Cleveland Indians.
The pitcher has allowed 3 or fewer runs in 4 of his 6 starts this season and held the Kansas City Royals to 5 runs, of which 3 were earned, in just over 6 innings in his last start.
It seems Boston will need Doubront to pitch as well as he has this season if they are to win this game as they face Josh Tomlin who has really found his feet in recent games. Tomlin is 1-2 with a 4.67 ERA, but he has only allowed 5 runs in over 13 innings pitched in his last two starts.
The pitcher only allowed 2 runs in over 7 innings pitched as the Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 3-2 in his last start, although he did not factor into that decision. Tomlin is 1-1 in his 3 career starts against Boston and he has a 4.50 ERA in those games.
Head to Head
These two teams have split the season series 1-1 so far and they have now split the last 10 games 5-5 overall.
The last 10 games at Fenway Park have also been split 5-5 between the teams.
Boston are 5-11 at Fenway Park, Cleveland are 10-4 on the road.
Prediction
I picked Cleveland in game one as I thought they should not be the underdog in that game and I am going to back the Indians in this one as I, again, think they don't deserve the underdog tag.
Boston, like the New York Yankees or the Detroit Tigers, are a big public play so they are always going to be favoured against less popular teams like Cleveland, but there is enough to suggest the Indians can win this game.
The pitching duel looks fairly even, but Tomlin has been restricting teams a little more in terms of runs recently and the 2.20 that Cleveland go up in the series looks more than fair.
The Pick :
Boston Red Sox 4-6 Cleveland Indians
