Tampa Bay at Cleveland
Tuesday, May 10th, 7:05 PM
(matchup)
On Tuesday, the team with the best record in the American League returns home where they have won 13 straight times. That team is the surprising Cleveland Indians, 22-11 on the year and off a 3-3 road trip. Since losing their first two games of the season, the Tribe has won every game they’ve played at Progressive Field and they are -130 favorites tonight over the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Indians are coming off a series which saw them drop two of three games to the Los Angeles Angels. It was only the fourth time all year that Cleveland lost a series and two of those have come to the Angels. Take away LA and Chicago and the Indians are 19-5 vs. all other teams in the American League. Their run differential of +48 remains an MLB best.
Visiting Tampa Bay is coming off a three-game sweep of division rival Baltimore. They have won four straight to climb back towards the top of the heap in the AL East. They currently trail the first place Yankees by only percentage points in the division standings. The Rays are off to an excellent start on the road this year, going 11-4, (a MLB best) compared to a surprising 9-10 at Tropicana Field. Among AL teams, only the Indians have allowed less runs on the season than have the Rays, 117 to 118.
Cleveland’s starting rotation has been a major surprise this season. Among those surprises has been Josh Tomlin, who gets the baseball tonight. Tomlin is 4-1 in six starts with a 2.43 ERA, including a perfect 3-0 here at home. However, he did suffer his only loss last time out, despite allowing only two earned runs in 7.7 innings of work at Oakland. This will be the first time he’s faced the Rays in his young career.
Andy Sonnanstine will make his first start of the season for Tampa Bay. An Ohio native, Sonnanstine has never had much luck vs. the Indians in his career with a 9.90 ERA in four starts. This is only his fourth start since 2009 overall as he fills in for the injured Jeff Niemann in the rotation. Sonnanstine has been effective out of the bullpen this year in six appearances with a 2.10 ERA and 0.894 WHIP.
The Indians are looking to win 14 in a row at home for the first time in 16 seasons. After allowing 23 runs in their first two home games, they’ve allowed just 32 in the last 13!
Tampa Bay, meanwhile, rides a franchise best eight game road winning streak. They have been swinging the bats well during this stretch, averaging 7.0 runs per game. The bad news is that they are just 2-18 in their last 20 games at Progressive Field.
