Cleveland Indians at Boston Red Sox | 2012-05-10 | MLB Baseball

MLB Baseball

2012-05-10 - Cleveland Indians at Boston Red Sox

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Cleveland Indians @ Boston Red Sox
United States: Major League Baseball
Thursday 10 May 2012 - First Pitch 7:05pm ET
12:05am (British Standard Time)

Preview

These two teams open up a four game set at Fenway Park with both hoping to find some momentum early after disappointments in their last series.

The Boston Red Sox (12-18) were beaten for the seventh time in eight games as they dropped the last two games in a series loss to the Kansas City Royals, a team that had won just 2 of their previous 14 home games before the Red Sox came to town.

The Cleveland Indians (17-13) had won six of their last seven games before dropping two in a row to the Chicago White Sox and ultimately tying that four game set 2-2.

While the struggles continue for the Red Sox under Bobby Valentine, the big story surrounds starting pitcher for this game Josh Beckett. He had been given extra time off as he was complaining of soreness in his back so missed his last scheduled start, only to be found on the golf course the very next day getting his handicap back down. This is yet another story of how Valentine has struggled to instil discipline into a Boston team that missed the Play Offs last season.

Beckett has a 2-3 record this season and a 4.45 ERA, but he has not started since April 29 when he gave up 3 runs in just under 7 innings pitched in a loss to the Chicago White Sox. He actually threw 126 pitches in that start that led to him being given additional time off. The pitcher has done OK in his last few appearances against Cleveland, allowing 13 runs in the last 26 innings pitched against them.

Boston are also 6-2 in the last 8 games that Beckett has started for them against the Indians, and the pitcher only allowed 2 runs in 6 innings in his last outing against them in August 2011.

Cleveland will counter with a former Red Sox player that helped them win the World Series in 2004. Derek Lowe has started the 2012 season with a 4-1 record and a 2.39 ERA and this will only be the second time he has faced them in his career and the first time since 2009 when he allowed 3 runs in over 6 innings pitched as an Atlanta Brave.

Lowe has pitched well so far this season and has held teams to 2 or fewer runs in 4 of his 6 starts. In his last outing, he held the Texas Rangers to 2 runs from 6 hits in over 6 innings pitched, although he did not factor in the decision as the Indians were beaten 5-2 in extra innings.

Head to Head

This is the first meeting of the teams since they split a four game set at Fenway Park back in August 2011.

The Red Sox have actually won 4 of the last 6 games in the series overall, although the last 8 games played at Fenway have been split 4-4.

Boston are 4-10 at home this season, Cleveland are 9-3 on the road.

Prediction

I actually though the layers would have priced these two teams up at similar prices, so the underdog odds on Cleveland look very appealing considering they were the ones I believed were going to win this game before the odds came out.

Fenway Park has not really been an appealing home for the Boston Red Sox so far this season, and the crowd will not be shy about getting on Josh Beckett's back if he starts struggling early considering all the reports about how he spends time recuperating from injuries.

Derek Lowe will obviously be familiar with the surroundings having played for the Red Sox before and he has been the stronger pitcher of the two going to the mound so far in 2012.

The Cleveland bats have been a little quiet in the last couple of games, but they are also getting men into scoring position so taking them as the underdogs looks more than a little appealing.