Tampa Bay Rays (60-39) vs. Cleveland Indians (48-48)
July 25, 2021 1:10 pm EDT
The Line: Cleveland Indians +141 / Tampa Bay Rays -151; Over/Under: 10
(Get latest betting odds)
The Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Indians meet in MLB action from Progressive Field on Sunday afternoon.
The Tampa Bay Rays will look to build on their 8-2 win over the Indians from Saturday. Austin Meadows led the charge, hitting a pair of home runs with four RBIs while Ji-Man Choi went 4 for 5 with a home run, a pair of doubles and three RBIs. Brett Phillips added a solo home run as well to finish off the Rays’ scoring as a team in the win while Joey Wendle went 4 for 5 with a pair of doubles. Brandon Lowe and Mike Zunino each had a base hit as well to finish off Tampa’s offense as a team in the win. Louis Head got the win in a relief role to improve to 1-0 on the year. The Rays did not have a starting pitcher announced at the time that this article was posted.
The Cleveland Indians will try to bounce back from their loss against the Rays on Saturday. Bobby Bradley had a solo home run while Jose Ramirez had an RBI to finish off Cleveland’s scoring as a team in the loss. Bradley Zimmer went 2 for 3 with a double while Franmil Reyes and Amed Rosario each had base hits as well to cap off Cleveland’s offense as a team in the defeat as the Tribe had just five hits as a team in the loss. J.C. Mejia took the loss, falling to 1-6 on the year after allowing five runs on seven hits with six strikeouts over six innings of work. Triston McKenzie will start here and is 1-4 with a 5.91 ERA and 71 strikeouts this season.
Tampa Bay is 5-0 in their last 5 games overall and 9-1 in their last 10 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 15-4-2 in their last 21 games as a road favorite. Cleveland is 23-48 in their last 71 games as an underdog and 3-8 in their last 11 home games while the over is 6-2 in their last 8 games against the AL East.
A home dog is usually worth a look at some point, but I think it says something that there hasn’t been a starting pitcher announced at the time that this article was posted and yet the Indians are still an underdog here. Triston McKenzie hasn’t been very good this season and while he’s young and still has time to develop, it doesn’t help Cleveland here. The Rays are back to playing solid baseball again and I think they get the job done on the road here.
