Indians vs. White Sox Pick
Can the Cleveland Indians make it 13 straight victories when it goes on the road to face the Chicago White Sox tonight at 8:10PM ET?
According to oddsmakers at Bovada.lv, the Indians are favored on the road tonight, as they are getting odds of -280 to win. The White Sox are listed with a money line of +240 to prevail, while the over/under total for the contest has been set at 9.5 runs.
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Tonight’s pitching matchup has Danny Salazar (5-6, 4.30 ERA) on the mound to face David Holmberg (2-3, 3.55) of the White Sox. Salazar had been rolling along, but is coming off a 6-run, 4.2-inning start at Kansas City back on Aug. 20. He hasn’t pitched since them. Salazar has 128 strikeouts this year with 38 walks and a 1.38 WHIP. Holmberg has been used mostly in relief. He has just six starts in 33 appearances this year. Holmberg has 28 strikeouts with 26 walks and a 1.50 WHIP.
Cleveland opened up the series on Monday with a 5-3 victory for its 12th consecutive win. The Indians have also won seven of their last 10 against the White Sox. Cleveland is now 81-56 overall and 45-27 on the road while Chicago is 54-82 overall and 32-36 at home.
Monday saw Trevor Bauer pitch 6.1 innings and allow just two runs to improve to 15-8 on the season. James Shields allowed four runs over 6.1 innings to fall to 2-6 on the season. Carlos Santana and Jose Ramirez each homered to lead Cleveland in the victory while Rymer Liriano had two hits and three RBI to lead the White Sox in the loss.
This may not be the ideal starting situation for Salazar, as he has struggled on the road this season, going 4-3 with a 4.97 ERA over 10 starts. He also is just 1-2 against the White Sox this year with a 4.24 ERA. Holmberg has been pretty good on the mound this season and eventually the Cleveland lineup has to fall off a little bit. It’s hard to maintain a win streak of this length. MLB teams suffer off days regularly. While I am not going to take the Sox outright, I will take a chance with them +1.5 runs at +135.
MLB DAILY PREDICTION: CHICAGO WHITE SOX +1.5 (+135)