With the third of a four-game series on the horizon, the Cleveland Indians and the Texas Rangers are each looking to be the first team to two wins in the series. The Rangers sit at 39-34 this year while the Indians are 38-34. The Indians are underperforming expectations this year while the Rangers are overperforming theirs.
Cleveland was expected to be a top-tier team in the American League, but they struggled out of the gates this season. The Rangers were expected to be one of the worst teams in baseball this year and partaking in a rebuild, but that has not been the case. The Rangers have played good baseball and are in the thick of the playoff race. At the time of this writing, odds were not available for this contest.
Indians Look For Second Win
After suffering a loss in the first contest of the series, the Indians came back in a big way with a dominating win in game two of the series. Cleveland’s bats were alive, and they scored 10 runs to beat the Rangers 10-3. For the Indians, that was a good sign, as their offense has really struggled this season. Cleveland is only batting .234 on the year, which is 20 points less than the Rangers’ average. The Indians have won four of their last five games and are looking to start another win streak so that they can catch Minnesota in the standings. Tonight, Adam Plutko is on the mound for the Indians. He holds a 4.63 ERA spread over 23.1 innings.
Rangers Vie to Keep Home Record Alive
Texas is among the top teams in baseball when they are playing at home. They are a totally different team when they are in their home ballpark against when they are on the road. A lot of the Rangers’ success this year has come due to their play at home. For the Rangers to make the playoffs, they will have to sustain this run that they are having at home this season. The Rangers are 25-13 in Arlington and are just 14-21 away from home.
Tonight the Rangers will have Joe Palumbo on the mound. He holds a 9.00 ERA with just four innings pitched in the majors. It is going to be a tough task for him to face the Indians no matter how good the Rangers are at home.
Both Teams Seek Upperhand
With the two starters who are pitching tonight, I think this game is going to end up coming down to offense. Neither of the pitchers has a very good matchup, so I can foresee this being a relatively high scoring game. With inexperience on the mound, I expect these teams to come out and swing earlier and try to get to the bullpen. I think the Rangers are going to use their ability to score runs at home to their advantage and come out on top.
