Bad and Worse – Chicago White Sox vs. Cleveland Indians

Chicago White Sox vs. Cleveland Indians 7:05 ET

It’s freaking painful to be a White Sox fan/bettor right now as this club just stinks out loud! They can’t pitch, they can’t hit, heck, they can’t even field evidenced by the 23 errors they’ve already committed throughout their first 31 sports betting match-ups. After dropping four in a row to Texas and KC, it looked as if the White Sox were going to string together a couple wins with a five-game home set scheduled through last weekend. The Palehose got off to a solid start when Mark Buehrle almost tossed a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers in a 6-0 White Sox win, but their L/4 efforts have almost all been putrid.

They got shut down by Matt Harrison for the second time this season on Friday, earned a controversial 3-2 decision against Texas the following night, and then got rolled up and smoked in the series finale and carried their putrid play over into Game 1 of last night’s series opener against the Cleveland Indians. Did I mention that Cleveland boasted the American League’s worst record along with Oakland going into last night’s game! This looks to be a series battle of AL Central cellar dwellers, and unfortunately for Chicago fans, they had to sit and watch their team continue to suck it up last night.

You can find Cleveland at -150 and a ‘total’ of 10 over -120 at BetOnline Sportsbook right now!

Lefty Clayton Richard will make his season debut as a starter for the ChiSox this evening. He’s been pitching out of the pen so far this year, but did get some starting action under his belt in ’08 where he went 2-5 with a 6.35 ERA through eight overalls tarts last season. Chicago brass believes this kid is almost ready to make an impact on their big league roster after going through some growing pains while getting acclimated to big league hitters last season. He got roughed up for six hits and three earned runs and took the loss in his only appearance against the Indians last season. Chicago lost four of his five road starts last year.

The recently called up Jeremy Sowers will look to bounce back from his rough season debut against Boston. He was solid for five innings giving up just one run, but was then blown up by the patient Red Sox hitters who tagged him for seven hits and seven earned runs. Boston scored 12 freaking runs in the sixth to hand Sowers the loss. He faced the White Sox twice last season. In those two games, the lefty gave up 12 hits and 12 earned runs through just 8.1 combined innings of work.

Neither of these starters is long for this game. Chicago Manager Ozzie Guillen is hoping for at least five from Richard, and Sowers has gone more than six innings only once in his career. That means the bullpens will be involved here. Chicago’s has been somewhat decent (#8 with a 3.78 ERA), but Cleveland’s is terrible (#29 with a 6.18 ERA). I lean to the White Sox on the side simply due to line value, but the ‘over’ is the way to go here. Chicago was embarrassed last night and owes it to themselves to drop a hefty tally on Cleveland this evening. If they fail to do so, changes have to be made to the line-up as they’ve dominated Sowers in the past.

Rose’s Recommendation: 3* Chicago/Cleveland Over 10 -120

(Rating Scale: 1* – 5*)