{"id":15937,"date":"2011-06-01T07:39:13","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T12:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15937"},"modified":"2011-06-01T07:39:13","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T12:39:13","slug":"al-betting-preview-cleveland-indians-at-toronto-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/al-betting-preview-cleveland-indians-at-toronto-blue-jays-15937\/","title":{"rendered":"AL Betting Preview: Cleveland Indians at Toronto Blue Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays play the final contest of a three-game series Wednesday night with both teams aiming for a series win at the Rogers Centre<\/p>\n

Cleveland Indians at Toronto Blue Jays<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Toronto Blue Jays OF Jose Bautista is batting .455 his last six games versus Cleveland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cleveland tallied a 6-3 win Tuesday and the club hopes to finish its six-game road trip with a .500 record with a victory tonight.\u00a0 The Indians received an offensive boost from outfielder Grady Sizemore, who went 2 for 4 with two RBIs in the second game of the series, after going 0 for 12 with seven strikeouts in his first three games since coming off the disabled list last week.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you\u2019re struggling for four or five games, you want to stop it there,\u201d Sizemore stated.\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t want it to go for 10 or 15.\u201d\u00a0 The club has stayed atop the AL Central standings for the past 55 days due to well-timed hitting, strong pitching and solid defense.\u00a0 Despite its recent struggles, Cleveland is still the American League\u2019s best team at 32-20.<\/p>\n

Indians starting pitcher Josh Tomlin is 6-2 with a 2.74 ERA in 10 starts this season and is coming off a defeat last time out.\u00a0 The right-hander allowed four runs and 10 hits over six innings of work in a 5-0 loss at Tampa Bay.\u00a0 He has posted an even 2-2 record and 2.94 ERA in five road starts, as opponents are hitting just .210 against him.\u00a0 Tomlin settled for a no-decision in his only career start against the Blue Jays on July 31, 2010, in Toronto.\u00a0 He went 5 1\/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits and two walks in the Indians\u2019 2-1 victory.<\/p>\n

Toronto has dropped seven of its last nine contests to Cleveland dating back to last season and will be looking for its first series win at home versus tonight\u2019s opponent since 2007.\u00a0 Outfielder Jose Bautista certainly isn\u2019t to blame for the club\u2019s lack of success against the top team in the American League, hitting .455 his last six games versus Cleveland.\u00a0 The offense entered Tuesday night riding its best overall production of the season, scoring 33 runs over its past three games.\u00a0 The Blue Jays finished May with a 15-13 record.\u00a0 In 31 night games this season, Toronto has registered a dominating 20-12 record.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays starting pitcher Kyle Drabek is an even 3-3 with a 4.16 ERA in 11 starts this season and has issued 42 walks in 62 2\/3 innings.\u00a0 \u201cI want to throw strikes, it\u2019s just I get a little amped up most of the time with different pitches, where I want to throw it,\u201d Drabek stated.\u00a0 \u201cSometimes I get too fine and I\u2019m thinking more outer half and it becomes a ball and that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to stop.\u201d\u00a0 The right-hander has compiled a 1-1 mark and 4.20 ERA in five home starts, including a no-decision effort last time out against the White Sox.\u00a0 He lasted 6 2\/3 innings and gave up two runs on three hits in a 4-2 Blue Jays\u2019 victory.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Indians due to their 9-3 record in Tomlin\u2019s last 12 starts, while the Blue Jays are 4-9 in the last 13 meetings in Toronto<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays play the final contest of a three-game series Wednesday night with both teams aiming for a series win at the Rogers Centre Cleveland Indians at Toronto Blue Jays Cleveland tallied a 6-3 win Tuesday and the club hopes to finish its six-game road trip with a .500 record […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[57,4979,2401,4983,1603,1748,223],"class_list":["post-15937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-cleveland-indians","tag-grady-sizemore","tag-jose-bautista","tag-josh-tomlin","tag-kyle-drabek","tag-rogers-centre","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15938,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15937\/revisions\/15938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}