The Cincinnati Reds managed to stave off a late comeback to the Cleveland Indians in the opener of their interleague series on Monday, which is a major positive for Reds backers considering the club allowed the Chicago Cubs to pull off come-from-behind victories in their previous two contests. Cincy turns to Sal Romano on the mound in the second matchup of the series vs Trevor Bauer and the Tribe today. Sportsbooks opened the Reds as +206 road underdogs with a total of 8.5.
Romano continues to benefit from Reds’ hot offense
Romano recorded the win last Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox despite surrendering a pair of home runs among the four runs he coughed up in five frames. The 24-year-old has given up 11 runs over his past three outings but is 2-1 in that span due to Cincinnati averaging 6.2 runs in those contests. The hurler is 2-2 with a 3.77 ERA in five career interleague starts and is facing the Indians for the first time.
Bauer (8-6, 2.45) struck out at least eight batters for the eighth straight outing and picked up the win for the third time in his last four trips to the bump last Wednesday in Kansas City, as the veteran allowed two runs while fanning eight over 7 2/3 innings of work. Bauer, who was named to his first All-Star Game over the weekend, ranks third in the American League with 156 strikeouts.
Reds have been stellar in interleague play
Cincinnati has struggled mightily when facing American League clubs over the past few seasons, but they’ve been straight-up dominant in interleague play this year. The Reds, who were 5-15 SU against the AL in 2017, are 9-2 SU vs American League competition in the 2018 campaign. Cincinnati took two of three against the White Sox last week and went 4-0 against both the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals in June.
Indians are going OVER with ease at home
When the Indians play at Progressive Field, high-scoring affairs tend to follow. In Cleveland’s past 38 home games, the OVER is 28-10 with an average combined score of 11.6 runs. That trend looks especially interesting with the sweet-swinging Reds in town, as Cincy has eclipsed the closing total in seven of their past nine games with an average combined score of 11.9 runs.