A. L. Central: Tigers Threaten to Pull Away
Miguel Cabrera and the Detroit Tigers took down the AL-leading Boston Red Sox.
The defending American League champion Detroit Tigers now have a four game lead in the American League Central Division. Four games may not seem like a large lead, but in Detroit’s case it is. The Tigers are coming off a successful three wins in four games over the American League’s best team, the Boston Red Sox over the weekend. Those results moved the Tigers to 10 games above .500 in a division where only the second place Cleveland Indians are above .500. Cleveland is two games over at 38-36. So the Tigers look to be in fantastic shape. If they can just play .500 ball for a while, it looks that it will be a long time before another team in this division gets to 10 games over.
Detroit will now take on the major disappointment of the American League this year, the Los Angeles Angels. After that they will travel down to Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Rays for three games. The Angels have been terrible all season and are currently 10 games under .500 at 33-43. They do worry teams when they pop up on the schedule because of all that talent. Teams are afraid they may snap out of their funk against them. While it is a possibility, the season is nearly half over and it hasn’t happened yet. It is increasingly likely as each series passes that the Angles are indeed a 90-loss team with a bloated payroll.
The Rays are capable of beating anyone, especially at home. But they are only two games above .500 themselves, mainly because of injuries in their starting rotation that have forced them to go with a lot of rookies, and a faulty bullpen. So the Tigers do not appear to be in any danger of losing ground this week.
The Indians will take on the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox in a pair of four-game series this week. This might not be the best time to take on the Orioles. They are no doubt in a foul mood after being swept over the weekend by the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays. But the White Sox have been nothing but awful all season. It could be the O’s are in a slump as much as the Jays are hot. If that is the case, the Indians may be in good shape this week.
The Kansas City Royals begin the week three games under .500. The Royals have lost four of their last five after they had clawed their way back to .500. Now they will take on the National League East leading Atlanta Braves in a two game series before taking on the Minnesota Twins in a four game series. The Twins will face the Miami Marlins in a two-game series before the Royals series. A half game separates the Royals and Twins right now, so there is a good chance the Twins will start the four-games series in third place ahead of the Royals.
JustBet has odds on today’s Indians vs Orioles game. The Indians are +1.5 -184 and the Orioles are -1.5 +164 ATS. Moneyline is Cleveland +113 and Baltimore -123. Over/under is 9 with over -127 and under +107. Ubaldo Jimemez will start for the Indians with a 5-4 record and a 4.86 ERA. Zach Britton will start for the Orioles at 1-1 with a 5.56 ERA. The Orioles are due for a win, so we like Baltimore -123 and the over-127.
This is the only game involving the A.l. Central on a light Monday schedule in MLB.
