Sep 13, 9:14am | 4 min read

Cleveland Indians vs. Minnesota Twins: MLB Over/Under Picks

MLB

Matt Zylbert

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Sunday’s MLB Over/Under Bet: McKenzie, Pineda seeking to keep rolling

ANALYSIS

Cleveland Indians vs. Minnesota Twins

Over/Under: 8

First pitch: 2:10 p.m. ET

Probable pitchers: Triston McKenzie (1-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Michael Pineda (2-0, 2.77 ERA)

Cleveland Indians vs. Minnesota Twins Predictions

On Labor Day, we reaped the rewards of backing Michael Pineda in an under while the linesmakers continue to undervalue the veteran right-hander. That’s once again the case here and we’re aiming for the same results under a similar scenario.

As I’ve detailed several times before, Pineda is still an upper echelon pitcher when he’s healthy and not being bound by bad luck like he was often as a New York Yankee (.300-plus batting average on balls put in play during each of his final three seasons with the Bronx Bombers).

Thus far in this shortened season, you can check off both those boxes and that adds up to a considerably dominant pitcher. Pineda’s looked sharp through his first two outings, notching a pair of quality starts in the efforts, so I’ll entrust him to extend his hot beginning for at least one more turn. Plus, he’s getting an Indians offense that’s been sluggish lately, plating more than four runs once in their last nine games.

Meanwhile, if you’re not yet impressed with Triston McKenzie, I’m not sure what else the exciting 23-year-old could have done in his first four career starts to change your tune. Possessed with electric stuff, McKenzie has registered at least six strikeouts in all but one of his assignments.

There’s no doubt the slender 6-foot-5 hurler is going to be a solid starter for years to come. McKenzie is already showing he can handle himself at the big-league level and the fact that Minnesota hasn’t seen him yet only helps his cause.

Bet: UNDER 8.5 (-117)