posted May 30, 2008 at 16:00 in MLB Betting Trends

The good news for the Cleveland Indians is that they don’t play the rival Chicago White Sox in their weekend sports betting series. The bad news for the struggling Tribe is that even a baseball betting series against the lowly Kansas City Royals isn’t likely to provide any easy wins for a team that has not been a good friend of those doing any MLB betting or sports betting over the past couple weeks.

The Indians and the Detroit Tigers were considered the frontrunners for the AL Central title in 2008, but neither team has been able to play up to expectations through the first two months of the season. Instead, the White Sox have managed to rise to the top of that division, and they certainly added to the Indians’ big woes in their two recent series.

Cleveland was swept in Chicago in a three-game set from May 20 to May 22, and they dropped two of three to the White Sox at Progressive Field earlier this week. The Indians have now lost 10 of their past 12 contests to sink below the .500 mark and behind both the ChiSox and the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central division standings.

The Tribe will try to turn around their fortunes this weekend when they take on the Kansas City Royals, who beat them twice in a rain-shortened series at the beginning of May. To be fair, though, the Royals do offer softer opposition than the White Sox – Kansas City snapped a nine-game losing streak with a win over the Twins on Wednesday.

Cliff Lee, C.C. Sabathia, and Paul Byrd are projected to start for the Indians in their weekend series. Lee is the one with the impressive stats in that group – he’s 7-1 with a 1.50 ERA through nine starts (he suffered his first loss on May 18). Sabathia is just 3-6 with a 4.74 ERA, but he’s surrendered just four earned runs over his last four starts. Byrd is 2-4 with a 4.10 ERA, and he’s coming off a no-decision versus the White Sox.

The Royals are expected to use Gil Meche, Brett Tomko, and Brian Bannister over the weekend, and all three of those pitchers have been inconsistent this season. Meche (3-7, 5.35 ERA) was at least a hard-luck loser in his last two outings (four earned runs over 13 innings). Tomko (2-6, 6.11 ERA) has given up five or more earned runs in six of his last eight starts. Bannister (4-6, 4.97 ERA) has picked up just one victory since April 13.

First pitch for the series opener on Friday night is set for 8:10pm ET in Kansas City. Game 2 will be played at 7:10pm ET on Saturday, with Sunday’s game at 2:10pm ET.

The White Sox, meanwhile, will find themselves in the Sunshine State for a series against the streaking Tampa Bay Rays (which got underway on Thursday). Minnesota will get a visit from the New York Yankees, while the Tigers will stay out west for a set against the Mariners. Other American League matchups scheduled for this weekend include Boston at Baltimore, Oakland at Texas, and Toronto at the Los Angeles Angels.

Over in the National League the top series this weekend sees the Marlins and the Phillies battling in Philadelphia for control of the NL East division. As well, it’ll be Colorado at the Cubs, Atlanta at Cincinnati, the Dodgers at the Mets, Houston at Milwaukee, Pittsburgh at St. Louis, Washington at Arizona, and San Diego at San Francisco.

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