The Seattle Mariners will host the Cleveland Indians Thursday for the first of four games at T-Mobile Park. The visiting Tribe comes into this series 20-14, just one game back from first place in the AL Central. The home team comes in 18-19, in third place in the AL West and 4.5 games back in their division. Cleveland will start Zach Plesac, who is 2-3, has a 3.83 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP. The Mariners are calling up their top pitching prospect, 6-foot-6 righty Logan Gilbert to make his first MLB start.
The Tribe dominated their 2019 season series, winning five of their 6 games. But it has been a while since they did not face each other in the shortened 2020 season, and this will be the first time these two clubs meet this year. This series is noticeably the clash of cheap ownership groups. According to Spotrac, the Indians combined payroll is just over $42m, the lowest in the big leagues. And the Mariners are not much higher, with their 26-man spend at just over $57m.
If the owners need a little bit more cash, they should look at the MLB series betting line on this series. The sportsbook has the Indians -150 and the Mariners +120 to win the series.
Cleveland Rocks
Indians manager Terry Francona has, once again, put together a great ball club. This despite the ownership group doing everything in their power to not assist in that goal. Cleveland has won three straight and seven of their last ten. Most recently, taking both games from the Cubs in a two-game interleague series. The Indians are leaving the comfort of home but they are an impressive 10-7 on the road.
The Tribe’s pitching has been good and seems to be improving. Zach Plesac, who will be starting game one, went eight innings and did not give up a run in his last outing, although he was overshadowed by Wade Miley throwing a no-hitter against his team. In fact, he had a scoreless outing prior to that solid start when pitching against the Chicago White Sox, going five and two-thirds and only giving up 3 hits. Look for him to continue that on Thursday against an unreliable offense.
That said, the Cleveland offense has not been that reliable either. Don’t forget, it was the Indians who Wade Miley threw his no-hitter against and the second time this season the Indians have been on the receiving end of a no-hitter. The team that doesn’t get a single hit in a game shouldn’t be talked about too much, but it should be taken into consideration when making your bets. These Tribe bats can go ice-cold. That said, the Indians did bounce back from being no-hit and smashed the Reds 9-2 the following day. José Ramírez has been their offensive leader with ten home runs and an absolutely fantastic .911 OPS. If he is productive, the whole club tends to be.
Middling Mariners
The M’s are probably excited to get home, after losing two of three to the Rangers in Texas and then getting swept in a two-game series by the Dodgers in Los Angeles. That means that they have lost four straight and now seven of their last ten. Perhaps they can end the skid at home, where they are 9-8.
Seattle has an above-average bullpen, and it is one that they have had to rely heavily upon this season, especially after injuries to starters Marco Gonzales, James Paxton and Nick Margevicius. Those Injuries are also causing the M’s to call up top pitching prospect Logan Gilbert to start Thursday’s game.
Gilbert is the No. 43 prospect in all of baseball and is said to be a bulk-inning starter with solid average stuff and plus command. Seattle will also call up prized outfielding prospect Jarred Kelenic for tonight’s game. This year, after a week in Triple A that had him hitting .409 with two home runs to go with two walks and two stolen bases, Kelenic got the call. Perhaps he can help with their streaky offensive production. Which has been unreliable, and primarily reliant on Mitch Haniger, who has ten HR’s, 27 RBI and a very solid OPS+ of 145.
Cleveland’s Pitching
This game, and the series, will come down to pitching. It usually does, but these teams have the worst two team batting averages in the MLB. Seattle’s .204 average at the plate is only slightly worse than the .209 that Cleveland has attained. Logan Gilbert should pitch well in his MLB debut and establish himself as a potential rotation piece for the M’s, but Plesac should stay hot and shutout Seattle like he has been doing to the rest of his opponents this May. With such a solid pitching duel, we are looking at the under in game one. The oddsmakers seem to agree, as the MLB Betting line in the sportsbook has Cleveland -117 and the total is only 7½ in this one.
We like the under in game one, but we really like the Indians to take the series. They will have Civale for game two, McKenzie for game three and 2020 Cy Young winner Shane Bieber for game four. In a battle of pitchers, we will take the ones with the hardware.
- Pick: Cleveland -150 for the series
