Indians vs. Athletics Pick
Can the Cleveland Indians avoid another slip up on the road when they take on the Oakland Athletics again tonight at 9:05PM ET?
According to oddsmakers at Bovada.lv, Cleveland is the heavy favorite on the road, as they Indians are getting odds of -205 to win. Oakland is listed with odds of +175 to prevail at home, while the over/under total for the game has been set at 8 runs.
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The pitching matchup tonight has Corey Kluber (7-3, 2.80 ERA) on the mound for the Indians to face Paul Blackburn (1-0, 0.66) of the Athletics. Kluber has been as good as anyone right now, allowing just three earned runs total over his last five starts. He has 123 strikeouts and 24 walks over 93.1 innings and his WHIP is 0.99. Blackburn has two starts for Oakland this year, but they have been great. He has given up just one earned run over 13.2 innings with four strikeouts and two walks.
Oakland took the first game in the series on Friday, 5-0. Oakland is now 2-3 in five meetings with the Indians this season. The Athletics are 40-50 overall and 25-21 at home while the Indians are 47-41 overall and 26-17 on the road.
Sonny Gray continued his upward trend for Oakland, pitching six scoreless innings on Friday while allowing just two hits to improve to 5-4 on the season. Carlos Carrasco had a rare poor outing, allowing five earned runs in 6.1 innings of work despite striking out 10. He fell to 10-4 on the season. Yonder Alonso had his 21st home run of the season to lead Oakland while Rajai Davis had two hits and scored a pair of runs.
The Indians are the big favorite with Kluber on the mound, but I don’t like them as such a large road favorite. Despite the great starts from Kluber, Cleveland is only 1-3 in his last four outings. Blackburn has been very impressive in his first two starts and gets to face a Cleveland team that looked like it never got off the plane on Friday. Due to the lopsided odds, I say go with the home dog with a good arm on the mound.
MLB DAILY PREDICTION: OAKLAND ATHLETICS +175