Indians to keep pace with robust BoSox bats?
First-place Boston doesn’t exactly look as if it requires a lot of help at the moment. Adding another plus arm to the rotation, though, never hurt anyone.
Joe Kelly makes his first appearance in more than a month in this afternoon’s middle game vs. Cleveland, with a 4:05 p.m. ET first pitch at Fenway Park. Oddsmakers at online sports book Bovada.lv have installed the Red Sox as 1.5-run favorites. The visiting team, conversely, enters as a +137 underdog.
On April 19, Kelly (1-0, 9.35 ERA) exited a 3-0 loss to Tampa Bay after two-thirds of an inning. The diagnosis was shoulder discomfort, the same diagnosis that forced him to miss the final three weeks of 2015. Now the righty’s back to solidify a Boston staff whose 4.74 ERA ranks among the bottom half of the American League.
Despite yesterday’s 4-2 defeat, the bats certainly aren’t the issue. Jackie Bradley Jr. comes in riding a 25-game hitting streak, while David Ortiz’s slash line of .306/.388/.639 can hardly be replicated. In fact, manager John Farrell currently boasts five .300-plus hitters (Bradley, Ortiz, Xander Bogaerts, Hanley Ramirez and Travis Shaw).
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Here, the Red Sox will aim to victimize Trevor Bauer (3-1, 3.89). The former third overall draft pick just suffered his first defeat since being welcomed into Terry Francona’s starting five late last month. Can Bauer neutralize a lineup that paces the majors with 242 runs? Doubtful, but that projected scoring output makes us raise our eyebrows. Good bullpen work should prevent the matchup in question from morphing into an all-out offensive war.
SATURDAY MLB FREE PICK: INDIANS/RED SOX UNDER 9.5 RUNS
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