Taking on the Tribe - Tampa Bay vs. Cleveland

MLB BASEBALL BETTING – Game Match-Up 5/26

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Cleveland Indians 7:05 ET

MLB betting heads into the second quarter of the season, and BetUS Sportsbook has all of the coverage that sports betting fans need to make coin on the games. As part of a full Tuesday night slate, the Tampa Bay Rays (23-24, -$491) will do battle with the Cleveland Indians (18-28, -$1,077) from Progressive Field. Last night, the Rays appeared set to coast to an easy victory after they took a 10-0 lead into the bottom of the 4th inning. But after LHP David Price came out of the game after just 3.1 innings, it all just started to unravel for manager Joe Maddon’s squad. The combination of Dale Thayer, Randy Choate, Grant Balfour, and Jason Isringhausen combined to give up nine runs (six earned) in just 1.2 innings of work to blow it for the defending AL Champs.

Tonight, Tampa Bay is the choice of the oddsmakers yet again, as it is a -130 favorite, while the ‘total’ has been set at 9.5 under -115.

The Rays have had a pretty miserable past few days. LHP Scott Kazmir, RHP Troy Percival, LHP Brian Shouse, and 2B Akinori Iwamura have all landed on the DL in the L/5 days, and their replacements simply aren’t getting the job done. Iwamura is done for the season with a torn ACL and ankle ligament, which will likely force Willie Aybar into the starting lineup on a daily basis. The problem is that Aybar was already subbing for DH Pat Burrell, who is also on the DL. That’s bad news for tonight’s starting pitcher, RHP Matt Garza. In what has been a down year for the Rays’ starters, Garza has been Mr. Consistency, going 4-2 with a 3.41 ERA. He picked up his first 2009 victory against the Tribe back on May 16th, throwing six innings and only allowing two runs. He’s 1-3 with a 5.52 ERA against Cleveland, and has yet to win a game at Progressive Field in his career.

Opposing the righty will be RHP Carl Pavano. Things just don’t seem to be getting any better for the former stud of the Marlins’ minor league system. He has a 6.10 ERA in nine starts, but does seem to be getting fewer breaks than the average pitcher. His walk total is quite low (1.22 per game), and his K/BB (3.64) and K/9 (7.40) are both solid. Opposing batters are hitting .313 against the right-hander, but if that number comes back towards his career average of .278, Pavano should start seeing more ‘W’s in the near future. His ERA is only 4.53 since allowing nine runs in just one inning in his first start of the season.

The Rays have dropped 14 straight games in Cleveland, and though it’s easy to look at the pitching match-up and suggest that they have a huge advantage, a closer look shows that the difference really isn’t that large. Two weeks ago, the Rays erased a 7-0 deficit against the Tribe to win a game, and they went on to win the final two games of the series after that. Look for Cleveland to take a step in the right direction and do the same to a beat up Tampa Bay team today.

Rose’s Recommendation: 4* Cleveland Indians +110

(Rating Scale: 1* - 5*)