The Cleveland Guardians will play the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3 of their series at Tropicana Field on Sunday afternoon.
The Cleveland Guardians are 51-49 this season and have won three of their last five games. Cleveland won Game 1 of this series by a score of 4-1 on Friday night. The Cleveland pitching staff has a 3.90 ERA, a 1.24 WHIP, and a .240 opponent batting average this season. The Guardians offense has scored 439 runs with a .252 batting average and a .315 on base percentage. Jose Ramirez is batting .289 with 21 home runs and 83 RBI’s for the Guardians this season. The projected starter for Cleveland is Bryan Shaw, who is 4-2 with a 5.45 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP over 36.1 innings pitched this season.
The Tampa Bay Rays are 54-47 this season and have lost six of their last eight games. Tampa Bay won Game 2 of this series by a score of 6-4 on Saturday afternoon. The Tampa Bay pitching staff has a 3.44 ERA, a 1.16 WHIP, and a .234 opponent batting average. The Rays offense has scored 417 runs with a .240 batting average and a .307 on base percentage this year. Randy Arozarena is batting .253 with 12 home runs and 47 RBI’s for the Rays this season. The projected starter for Tampa Bay is Shane McClanahan, who is 10-3 with a 1.76 ERA and a 0.77 WHIP over 117.2 innings pitched this season.
Cleveland is 3-7 in their last 10 game three’s of a series and 2-10 in their last 12 games on astroturf. The over is 8-3-1 in Cleveland’s last 12 games. Tampa Bay is 2-6 in their last 8 games and 6-2 in their last 8 game three’s of a series. The over is 5-1 in Tampa Bay’s last 6 home games. Cleveland is 1-8 in these two teams last 9 head to head meetings in Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay has been playing poorly in their last eight games, but was able to come away with a victory on Saturday afternoon. The Rays will look to string a couple of wins together with Shane McClanahan on the mound, who has allowed five runs in his last 26.1 innings pitched. For the Guardians, Bryan Shaw will start the game, but it will be a bullpen game. I really like Tampa Bay in this spot, as McClanahan has been mostly dominant this season. I am taking the Rays to win by 1.5 runs.