MLB Baseball
2012-05-22 - Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Indians
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Tuesday 22 May 2012 - First Pitch 7:05pm ET
12:05am (British Standard Time)
Preview
These two teams are American League Central rivals and they will be opening up their season series at Progressive Field on Tuesday evening. The Detroit Tigers (20-21) have been a disappointment so far but come into this one off a series win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cleveland Indians (23-18) have made a solid start to 2012, but they are off a series loss to the Miami Marlins.
The big news ahead of the series was the fact that Chris Perez, the Cleveland closer, decided to have a pop at his fans and the lack of attendance in their home games so far this season. He even went so far as to claim that players don't sign in Cleveland because of the low attendances and it will be interesting to see the reaction he gets the next time he is called out of the bullpen.
Detroit are hoping that Austin Jackson can return to the line up tonight after he missed four games with an injury, while Rick Porcello will take the ball in the hope his defense doesn't let him down the way the did in his last outing.
Porcello is 3-3 this season with a 5.12 ERA and he is coming in off a performance where he gave up 6 runs in 4 innings pitched against the Minnesota Twins, although 4 of those were unearned runs thanks to errors from the defense.
The pitcher has played well against Cleveland in the past, going 5-1 from his 12 starts against the Indians and with a 3.86 ERA, but he will have to watch out for Carlos Santana who has hit more Home Runs off Porcello than any other player.
Cleveland did not enjoy their meetings with Detroit last season and they will hope that Ubaldo Jimenez can continue his recent form that has seen him win his last 2 starts at Progressive Field. Jimenez is 4-3 this season with a 5.09 ERA and he allowed just 3 runs in 6 innings pitched against the Seattle Mariners in his last outing.
However, he has been tagged heavily by the Tigers since signing with the Cleveland Indians last year. In four starts against them, he has allowed 17 runs in 23 innings pitched- take out the 8 inning shut out in his first start for the Indians against Detroit, and you can can see he has been hit for 17 runs in just 15 innings pitched.
Head to Head
Cleveland actually have lost the last 10 games against the Detroit Tigers since winning 3 of 4 games.
The Indians have lost 4 in a row at home to the Tigers, although they had won 13 in a row at Progressive Field against their rivals before that.
Cleveland are 11-12 at home this season, Detroit are 9-9 on the road.
Prediction
This should be a close game and I would not be surprised if we see a few runs scored and perhaps even a couple of lead changes before the dust settles and we have a winner.
Rick Porcello has been inconsistent on the mound this season, but he hasn't been that much more inconsistent than Cleveland's Ubaldo Jimenez and certainly not so much that he should be the underdog.
Porcello has a decent record against Cleveland in his career and he may just have the edge, especially considering the way Jimenez has been tagged in his last three starts against Detroit.
Detroit's bats have not been as impressive as we all thought they may be so far in 2012, but there are signs they are warming up and I think the Tigers are a live underdog in this one.
The Pick :
Cleveland Indians 4-5 Detroit Tigers
