The Cleveland Indians have gone 8-1 on the UNDER in Shane Bieber’s nine starts this season. Two of those games include a 2-0 win over Minnesota back in July and a 4-2 victory over the Twins in August. Another low-scoring game could be on tap in Friday’s series opener between the Indians and the Twins in Minnesota.
Sportsbook Odds Analysis
The Sportsbook odds were released late Friday morning with Cleveland going off as a -120 favorite and Minnesota paying +110 as a home underdog. The total for the game is set at just 7 runs. The UNDER is 4-0 in Minnesota’s last four games with Kenta Maeda on the mound.
Starting Pitchers Analysis
Shane Bieber has been the best pitcher in baseball this season and it isn’t particularly close. Bieber owns a perfect 7-0 record and has the best ERA in the majors at 1.25, a sterling 0.85 WHIP and an MLB-leading 94 strikeouts in 57.2 innings. He gives the Indians an excellent chance to win every time he takes the mound, and Cleveland’s 8-1 record in his nine starts reflects that.
Kenta Maeda is one of only two pitchers in the majors with a better WHIP than Bieber’s at 0.72 through eight starts. Maeda is enjoying a career year in his first season with the Twins, going 4-1 with a 2.77 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 48.2 innings. This matchup is a pitcher’s duel through and through.
Cleveland News & Notes
One of the biggest surprises of this year’s trade deadline was seeing the Indians part ways with a young pitcher as talented as Mike Clevinger without getting an impact bat in return. Cleveland traded Clevinger to the San Diego Padres for a package of players who could develop in the future but don’t help much now. Josh Naylor, the one everyday bat they did acquire, is hitting only .179 through his first nine games in Cleveland.
So the Indians continue to put all of the pressure on the American League’s best pitching staff (team ERA 3.03) without producing much run support. Cleveland fell to 26-18 on the season with three straight losses to the Kansas City Royals this week, scoring only 2.33 runs per game in those three losses.
Minnesota News & Notes
The Twins were heading in the wrong direction with a 0-6 skid to end the month of August. But since the calendar flipped to September, Minnesota is 7-2 over its last nine games and back to 27-18 overall. Minnesota enters this three-game series with Cleveland one game behind the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central and a half-game ahead of the Indians.
Shane Bieber has led the Indians to two wins over the Twins, but Minnesota is 4-1 in the other five games it has played against Cleveland in 2020. The Twins have averaged 6.25 runs per game over their last four games and will try to carry that offensive momentum into this showdown against the Indians ace.
Betting Pick: Cleveland -120
The UNDER is almost certainly the right side in this one but set at just 7 runs, there is so little margin for error. One thing is for sure, though; you can’t go wrong betting the best pitcher in baseball at only -120.