Baseball Picks – Cleveland vs Minnesota

BetOnline Sportsbook‘s MLB picks for the 2010 campaign continue on Wednesday night with the clash between two American League Central rivals, as the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins do battle in the second of their three-game set.

The Twins, who have already built themselves a three-game lead in the AL Central and have the second best record in baseball, took Game 1 of this series 5-1 behind a great pitching performance from RHP Kevin Slowey last night.

The righty only allowed one run and five hits through eight frames. Two Cleveland errors led to three unearned runs to send the Tribe back below the breakeven point.

Cleveland Indians (6-7, +$16) vs. Minnesota Twins (10-4, +$610)

• Game Date/Time: Wednesday, April 21st, 8:10 ET
• Game Location: Target Field, Minneapolis, MN
• TV/Radio Broadcast: SportsTime Ohio, Fox Sports North, XM

MLB Odds:

Cleveland Indians +1.5 -125 +160
(David Huff – L)
Minnesota Twins -1.5 +105 -190
(Francisco Liriano – L)
Total 8.5 O -120 8.5 U EVEN

If LHP David Huff can continue pitching this well over 34 starts, he’s going to emerge as the real ace that the Tribe so desperately needed after losing both LHP CC Sabathia and LHP Cliff Lee in back to back years.

The 25 year old southpaw may only be 1-1 on the season, but he has only conceded three earned runs, two of which came in a complete game victory against the Rangers in his last start six days ago.

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Huff, who is notoriously known for walking too many batters and striking out too few, still probably has that issue with three walks against six strikeouts this year, but Manager Manny Acta will take the 2:1 K/BB ratio from his lefty every day.

It’s hard not to like what LHP Francisco Liriano has done in two starts this year for the Twins. He is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA, conjuring up memories from three years ago when he looked like the man that was going to be the next Johan Santana in Minnesota.

Liriano is still walking too many batters, as seven in just 13 frames is too high, but his 11 strikeouts eases the pain.

The southpaw was simply awesome against the Red Sox in his most recent start, throwing seven shutout innings and allowing just six baserunners against eight strikeouts.

For his career, Liriano only has respectable numbers against the Indians, going 2-3 with a 4.45 ERA and 1.61 WHIP in 32.1 career innings. However, dating back to the 2009 season, Liriano hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a start at home since June 17th.

MLB Insider Tip: The Twins are 24-9 in their L/33 tries as favorites.

Even though we tend to believe that this stat is going to hold true, one must remember that this is a ton of chalk to eat in order to back the hosts.

Instead, we believe that Huff has the goods to take care of any lineup in the American League on any given night. The Cleveland Indians are 7-3 in Huff’s L/10 road starts, while the Twins are a poor 4-9 the L/13 times Liriano was installed a favorite.

Look for Minnesota’s four-game dominance (4-0 L/4) in this series to come to a close tonight.

Our MLB picks feature the Tribe taking out the Twinkies to even up the 2010 season series.

My MLB Prediction: Cleveland Indians (Huff)