The Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Guardians meet Friday in MLB action from Progressive Field. This will be the second matchup in a four-game weekend series. In the Thursday opener, Cleveland bagged a three-run victory. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.

Baltimore Orioles 

The Orioles played the Astros this week and did pretty well, winning two of three games with a lone 2-1 loss on Wednesday. Anthony Santander had the lone RBI in the defeat. In the Thursday opener versus the Guardians, Baltimore couldn’t score outside of the eighth inning in a 5-2 loss. Santander and Ryan O’Hearn each had an RBI in the defeat. 

As starter for Baltimore on Friday it’ll be Dean Kremer. This year Kremer is 12-5 with a 4.17 ERA in 30 starts. Kremer is 2-1 with a 2.77 ERA over his last seven starts, posting 31 Ks in a span of 39.0 innings. 

Baltimore Orioles Team Facts

The underdogs have won each of the Orioles’ last four games.
The Orioles have failed to cover the run line in each of their last six games as favorites.
The Orioles have trailed after 5 innings in four of their last six games as favorites against AL Central opponents.
The Orioles have trailed after 7 innings in four of their last six games as favorites against AL Central opponents.
The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Orioles’ last four night games against AL Central opponents.

Cleveland Guardians 

Over on the Guardians’ side, they came up empty versus the Royals with a three-game sweep in their early-week series. Cleveland’s Andres Gimenez and Myles Straw each had an RBI in Wednesday’s 6-2 loss. On Thursday the Guardians got two hits from both Gimenez (run) and Jose Ramirez (RBI) in the win. 

Shane Bieber will take the mound for the Friday start. Thus far Bieber is 5-6 with a 3.77 ERA in 19 starts and 95 Ks in 117.0 innings. Bieber is 1-3 with a 3.86 ERA over his last seven starts, totaling 42 Ks in 42.0 frames. 

Cleveland Guardians Team Facts

The home team has won each of the Guardians’ last eight games.
The underdogs have covered the run line in each of the Guardians’ last 12 games.
The ‘Inning 1 UNDER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Guardians’ last five home games.
The Guardians have led after 7 innings in each of their last five games as underdogs.
The Guardians have led after 5 innings in each of their last five games as underdogs against American League opponents.

Matchup/League Facts

The Cleveland Guardians rank 30th in the league for home runs this season (117).
The Cleveland Guardians rank 1st in the league for strikeouts against this season (1087).
The Baltimore Orioles rank 3rd in the league for doubles this season (295).
The Baltimore Orioles rank 6th in the league for runs scored this season (778).

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’ll stick with the Orioles here. Kremer has one bad recent start: 4.1 innings with five earned on seven hits and five walks versus St. Louis on September 11 in a no-decision. In the other pair of his last trio however, Kremer has 9.2 total frames, one earned, six hits and five walks. As for Bieber, he’ll be returning from an elbow issue here. Bieber hasn’t pitched in the Majors since July 9 in a loss to KC. In the Thursday opener of this set, Baltimore had seven team hits and really couldn’t get much going outside of the eighth inning. The O’s have just three runs over the last two games combined, but they had five or more runs in four straight games prior to that. I like the offense to come back around in game two.