Cleveland Guardians vs Tampa Bay Rays Analysis<\/h2>\n
The Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians meet for second of three games from Progressive Field on Wednesday evening. The Rays prevailed last night in extra frames with a 6-5 victory in the 11th inning.<\/p>\n
The Guardians have clinched the American League Central so they are locked in the #3 spot. Tampa Bay needs every win possible for Wild Card positioning.<\/p>\n
Rays righty Tyler Glasnow is scheduled to rejoin the rotation after missing nearly 14 months after Tommy John surgery. Cleveland will counter with the 25 year-old righty Triston McKenzie. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 PM EST\/3:10 PST.<\/p>\n
The Guardians Of The Central<\/h3>\n
The Cleveland Guardians record fell to 86-67 on the year after losing 6-5 in the 11th inning. Jose Ramirez went 3 for 6 with two RBI and a triple. Shane Bieber had a poor outing by his standards with four runs allowed on six hits across six innings.<\/p>\n
The Guardians are essentially playing out the string and trying to stay healthy as they have locked up the AL Central. Cleveland has done it with pitching as they rank 6th in team ERA at 3.52 and 5th in WHIP at 1.17.<\/p>\n
However their offense relies heavily on Jose Ramirez and is middle of the pack at 16th in runs scored. The Guardians turn to the young hurler Triston McKenzie on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
He is 11-11 on the season with a 3.04 ERA and 0.96 WHIP. McKenzie has been lights out recently, holding opponents to only 7 runs across 27.2 innings of work in his last four outings.<\/p>\n
Rays Shine In Extras<\/h3>\n
The Tampa Bay came out of Progressive Field with a dramatic 6-5 victory in the 11th inning. They improved to 85-69 on the season to give them the 2nd Wild Card spot.<\/p>\n
They have a 1.5 game lead over the Seattle Mariners and a five game lead over the Baltimore Orioles. Tampa Bay actually ranks very similar to the Guardians in pitching and hitting. They are also middle of the pack ranking 20th in runs scored.<\/p>\n
However their pitching is elite as they rank 4th in team ERA at 3.40 and 4th in WHIP at 1.14. Now they add Tyler Glasnow back into the mix at starting pitcher.<\/p>\n
Glasnow is a former ace who has missed close to 14 months due to Tommy John surgery. However this will likely be more of a bullpen game considering Glasnow can’t be expected to go very deep.<\/p>\n
Cleveland Guardians vs Tampa Bay Rays Prediction<\/h2>\n
The Cleveland Guardians are favored with a money line set at -125 while the Tampa Bay Rays sit at +105 with a total set low at 6.5. These head-to-head matchups are built for unders, however they combined for 11 runs last night.<\/p>\n
With McKenzie on the bump for Cleveland the Tampa bats should normalize tonight. McKenzie has been brilliant recently and has a great short term track record against the Rays.<\/p>\n
Current Tampa hitters are 4 for 21 against him with no homeruns, a .190 batting average and a .547 OPS. Tampa Bay has scored less than two F5 runs in 6 of their last 9 games.<\/p>\n
They got to Bieber yesterday, but that was after he sat during a short rain delay. Let’s drink the juice on the Rays first five innings team total under 1.5 at -130 odds.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Tampa Bay Rays F5 Team Total Under 1.5 -130 (first five innings)<\/strong><\/p>\n Join Drew Martin and a rotating panel of guests for First Pitch as we break down the daily baseball slate from a betting perspective. Join WagerTalk’s team of MLB betting experts every weekday at 1:45pm ET \/ 10:45am PT for First Pitch as we discuss the baseball betting slate.<\/p>\nFirst Pitch | MLB Predictions for Wednesday, September 28<\/h3>\n
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