First off, the hard-hitting Baltimore Orioles host the resurgent Cleveland Indians at Camden Yards for the second bout of their three-game series. At about the same time that that match is going down, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals will also clash in hopes of improving their respective positions in the National League Wild Card standings.
Let’s take a closer look at these two sizzling matchups below.
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Cleveland Indians vs. Baltimore Orioles (Sat, July 23, 7:05 PM ET)
Line: Cleveland Indians at Baltimore Orioles – view all MLB lines
Everything’s coming up roses indeed for the city of Cleveland as even the Indians are playing fantastic baseball this season. As of Thursday night, they have the best team-ERA the American League (3.60) and the second-most total strikeouts with 806 K’s. The Tribe will definitely be glad to have Josh Tomlin (10-2, 3.34 ERA) on the mound this Saturday. Tomlin has a superb 2.89 ERA over his last eight starts, all of which with no less than six innings of work.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles, who have the most home runs in the AL this season, have seen a power outage of sorts lately. They’ve failed to score more than two runs in each of the last five contests prior to Thursday’s 4-1 win over the Yankees, which leaves a ton of pressure on Saturday’s starter, Kevin Gausman (1-7, 4.05 ERA). Gausman’s fresh off a solid two-run, 7.2-inning outing against the Yankees this past Monday along with six strikeouts, but got tagged with a loss since the O’s offense only mustered up one run that game.
Writer’s Prediction
Indians win, 4-2.
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. St. Louis Cardinals (Sat, July 23, 7:15 PM ET)
Line: Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis Cardinals – view all MLB lines
With Clayton Kershaw expected to miss some time due to injury, the Los Angeles Dodgers might be in deep trouble. Luckily for them, they still have some form of depth in the starting rotation with the likes of Saturday’s starter, Kenta Maeda (8-7, 3.25 ERA), who has 112 strikeouts in 108 innings of action this season. However, Maeda’s coming off a rather dismal start this past Sunday against Arizona, giving up five runs and seven hits in just 4.1 innings of work.
As for the Cardinals, they appear to be in much safer hands with Mike Leake (7-7, 4.00 ERA) set to counter Los Angeles’ Maeda. Leake has posted back-to-back wins in his last couple of starts, allowing just a total of two runs on the strength of 21 strikeouts and not a single walk. That should bode well for the Cards, who have a plus-102 run differential – third-best in the majors – and are now just six-and-a-half games behind preseason World Series favorites the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central standings.
Writer’s Prediction
St. Louis wins, 5-2.
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