Rangers @ Indians Preview: Battle of Aces

Both the Texas Rangers and the Cleveland Indians are second place in their respective divisions.  The Rangers sit four games behind the Oakland Athletics while the Indians are a mere three games behind the Detroit Tigers.  Both the Tigers and A’s are involved in series that they are well on their way to winning, which makes this series between the Rangers and Indians that much more important.

With the second-half well underway now is the time to start working your way to the front of the pack something both Cleavland and Texas want to do.  Both teams desperately want the ‘W’ today, and both teams are sending out their top pitchers to get the job done.

Yu Darvish and Justin Masterson are two of the premiere pitcher in all of the MLB.  Darvish Darvish leads the American League in strikeouts while Masterson sits in fourth place.  This is truly going to be a shootout between these two pitchers.

In his last game, Darvish dominated the New York Yankees.  He limited New York to just two hits and two walks over 6 1/3 innings while keeping their runs to zero.  Darvish’s overall ERA is at a 2.86.

Masterson ran a no-hitter into the seventh in his last game against the Minnesota Twins before allowing a run.  He allowed only one hit over those seven innings with eight strikeouts.  Masterson has three shutouts just this season.  His ERA is at 3.60 0verall.

The Rangers are the favorites to win according to Bovada with a moneyline at -124.  The Indians have a moneyline of +114.  The game starts at 7:05 p.m. ET.