MLB Baseball
2012-04-17 - Cleveland Indians at Seattle Mariners
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Tuesday 17 April 2012 - First Pitch 10:10pm ET
3:10am (British Standard Time)
Preview
The Seattle Mariners (6-5) finally found a break in their schedule having opened the 2012 season in Japan and playing games in Oakland and another series against the Athletics here. They now open a tough series against the Cleveland Indians (4-4) who have picked up some heat of late.
Cleveland lost an opening series at home, but opened up a 9 game road trip with a 3 game sweep at the Kansas City Royals. What was more impressive is the fact that they totalled 40 hits and 32 runs in those games against the Royals and became the first Indians team in their 111 year history to score at least 8 runs in their first three road games.
Justin Masterson will be hoping he won't need that kind of run support as he gets his third start of the season. The pitcher is 0-1 with a 2.77 ERA, but really had a hard time last time out as he gave up 5 runs in 5 innings against the Chicago White Sox, although 2 of those were unearned. He is 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA against Seattle from 5 starts.
Seattle are looking for their first 3 game winning streak of the season having won the last 2 games against Oakland. The Mariners hand the ball to Kevin Millwood who is 0-0 with a 1.50 ERA after his first start of the season. Millwood gave up just 1 run in 6 innings pitched against the Texas Rangers while striking out 7 and issuing just 3 walks.
Millwood has not pitched against Cleveland since the 2010 season, giving up 3 runs from 7 innings pitched as a Baltimore Oriole.
Head to Head
Cleveland won the season series between the teams 5-4 last season, but they actually lost 4 of their last 5 including 3 in a row at home.
However, they swept the series 3-0 in Seattle and have improved to 20-8 in their last 28 games here.
The Indians have won 10 of the last 12 here while averaging over 6 runs a game.
Seattle are 2-2 in Game 1's this season, going 1-1 after a win.
Cleveland are 1-2 in Game 1's, going 0-1 following a win.
Prediction
I am going to back the Cleveland Indians on the run line as I really want to stay on the team while they are scoring runs at the rate they are at the moment.
The Indians also have a very strong record when visiting this ballpark and have a pitcher that has enjoyed success against Seattle in the past.
Seattle are also averaging just 3 runs per game over their last 7 this season and they will need to do more if they are to run the Indians close in my opinion. Cleveland have scored at least 4 runs in all but one of their opening 8 games.
With the Indians also averaging 6.3 runs per game over their last 12 visits here, I think the run line is worth an interest in this one.
The Pick :
Seattle Mariners 3-6 Cleveland Indians
