MLB Baseball Betting: Tampa Bay Rays at Cleveland Indians

The Orioles turned the tables on the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday thumping Canada’s baseball team 11-6. Baltimore takes 2 of 3 over the weekend and the Jays are back in third place three games out of first and two games behind the Boston Red Sox. The New York Yankees are in fourth place 3.5 back of Toronto with Tampa Bay bringing up the rear 5.5 games behind the Jays. Tampa had been playing good baseball until recently and with the Blue Jays idle on Monday we’ll preview the Rays’ game with the Cleveland Indians.

Cleveland’s fans should have plenty of enthusiasm tonight. Not only are the Indians in first place in the AL Central by a half game over Kansas City they’re likely going to still be celebrating the NBA Title won by LeBron James and the Cavs on Sunday. With the exception of the hapless Minnesota Twins, the AL Central is similar to the AL East–very competitive. Detroit is 4.5 games out of first and the Chicago White Sox are 5.5 games out. The Tribe have won three straight and 6 of 10. For the month of June, they’re 12-6 +5.3 units.

Tampa Bay was playing great baseball until they hit a rough patch and have now lost 4 straight. Today’s pitchers are reflective of their team’s recent form. Tampa Bay will go with lefthander Drew Smyly. His YTD numbers are mediocre at best–4.75 ERA overall and 5.13 on the road. Tampa has lost 7 of his 13 games overall including 4 of 7 on the road. His last three starts were brutal in terms of statistics but Tampa won two of them. His L3 ERA is 8.04 but that’s almost exclusively based on a rough 4 inning 8 ER performance on May 31 at Kansas City. Since that debacle he hasn’t pitched badly.

Tampa will respond with righthander Josh Tomlin. His YTD numbers aren’t impressive but the important thing is that when he starts Cleveland wins. He’s got a 3.27 ERA overall and a 4.05 home ERA. Cleveland is 10-2 +8 units overall in Tomlin’s starts and 5-1 +3.5 units at home. They’ve won two of his last three starts and he’s looked very sharp, putting up a 1.83 ERA.

Form is huge in baseball and right now the Tribe have it and the Rays don’t. We’ll bet this one accordingly.

BET CLEVELAND INDIANS -130 OVER TAMPA BAY RAYS