Chicago White Sox vs Cleveland Indians Predictions, Betting Odds & Picks

Garcia’s 2021 record: (21-16-2)

How to watch Chicago White Sox vs Cleveland Indians

The Pitching Matchup Should Be a Good One

THere’s absolutely no doubt about the fact that Shane Bieber is one of the best pitchers in baseball. But as of the last month, he hasn’t been as sharp as his Cy Young season in 2020, even though he has an extremely high strikeout rate.

Bieber is 5-3 with a 3.13 ERA and 1.21 WHIP — great numbers, but nothing that suggests he’s one of the most dominant arms in the game. That said, he does pace the league with 110 strikeouts in 72 innings. He comes off one of his best games of the season, when he went seven innings and gave up just one run on one hit while striking out 12 in a 5-2 win over Detroit.

On the other side, White Sox starter Dylan Cease is having the best start to a season of his young career, which could make this one could be a sneaky tight pitching matchup.

Cease is 3-1 with a 2.98 ERA and 1.27 WHIP and has been great the past month. In his last six starts, he’s given up one run or fewer in four of those starts and struck out nine or more batters three times. While Bieber has the experience, Cease is going against a lineup that’s not as deep so this should be a very tight ball game.

Can Cleveland Keep Pace With Chicago Offensively?

Runs are going to be at a premium in this game and sometimes it just comes down to which side can get it done. Overall, the clear advantage in this one goes to Chicago, because while they lead Cleveland by just 3.5 games in the standings, they’ve outscored them by nearly 50 runs on the season.

Perhaps no stat illustrates this point better than an on-base percentage. The White Sox have five everyday players who have an OBP above. 350. Cleveland doesn’t have a single one.

Yoan Moncada has led the way this year for Chicago — further illustrating the point of the team’s depth after just last season the south-siders had two other players finish in the top 10 in MVP voting, one of course who won the award in Jose Abreu. Moncada has a .421 OBP and a team-best 2.4 WAR (wins above replacement) almost a full win more than Tim Anderson (1.5) who is next.

X-Factor to Watch on Both Sides

We wanted to single out Jose Abreu as somebody to watch for because he’s been absolutely dominant the last week — he’s batting .375 with a 1.191 OPS with two home runs and 10 RBIs the last seven days  — but that’s a little too obvious since he is the reigning MVP.

So we will look at Nick Madrigal who hasn’t had the same power stroke but has been very effective. He’s batting .440 with a 1.100 OPS with a team-high 11 hits.

For Cleveland, it’s Cesar Hernandez who needs to really get his bat going. The Indian’s leadoff man is 3-for-25 over the last week with just two walks and eight strikeouts. It underscores a disappointing season for the 31-year-old outfielder who is hitting just a .216 batting average with a .684 OPS.