Boston Red Sox vs Cleveland Indians

Cleveland starter Zach Plesac has been on a roll, 3-0 with a 3.24 ERA and 22 strikeouts in four starts. He has lost just once in his last 15 starts with the Indians going 11-5 in his last 16 starts. Cleveland is on a 10-5 run overall and still alive in a pennant race. Streaky Boston has won four in a row after a terrible 5-8 stretch where they lost five times as a favorite. That included a 10-1 defeat as -340 chalk! Scheduled starter Nick Pivetta just went on the COVID list, the 10th Boston player to land there in the last week. So Kutter Crawford will make his Major League debut. He has a 4.16 ERA in Double-AA/Triple AAA this season after missing all of last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Red Sox are 32-47 at home against winning teams while the Indians are 37-28 after a defeat. Play Cleveland.

Cleveland had a four-game win streak snapped with an 8-5 loss to the Red Sox as Kyle Schwarber hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the seventh, but the Indians look to rebound from that loss with Eli Morgan starting and he has shown flashes of becoming a very capable big league pitcher. Morgan has done his best work on the road where he has a .216 opponent batting average while allowing 12 runs in 27 innings. Boston has lost three of Tanner Houck's past four starts, including against the Indians on Sunday. Cleveland has won six of seven following a loss and the Red Sox are 6-14 their past 20 games against teams with winning records. Cleveland is 7-1 its past eight after scroing at least five runs its previous game. Play the Indians.

Boston has rebounded from a rough stretch that caused it to fall out of first place and won five of its past seven games, including a 4-3 victory over the Indians on Friday night. Jonathan Arauz hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth and the Red Sox won despite getting only three hits. Nathan Eovaldi goes tonight and he is coming off three good starts while allowing only three earned runs in 19 innings. Cleveland hitters are batting only .203 with a .263 slugging percentage in 38 at-bats against Eovaldi. Boston is 35-17 its past 52 games versus AL Central teams and Cleveland is 29-62 its past 91 games as an underdog, 8-23 as a home dog. Also, the Indians have won just nine of 32 against teams with winning records. Play the Red Sox.