Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Indians Prediction & Picks

Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Indians Prediction & Picks

Date: June 29

Time: 7.10pm ET

Where: Progressive Field

Click here to view the latest odds.

Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Indians Prediction

The Indians broke out for 13 runs yesterday, scoring in every inning but two against Matt Manning and the Detroit bullpen. Now they’ll look to continue that momentum into tonight’s game against Jose Urena.

Urena is 2-8 on the season with a 6.00 ERA. He’s been lit up recently, allowing 24 runs in his last 14.2 innings pitched with 26 hits and four home runs. In those 14.2 innings, Urena has struck out just seven batters and walked 10.

He hasn’t pitched more than five innings in a single game in June and the bullpen hasn’t helped his case when he starts.

In the last three games Urena pitched, the Tigers have allowed their opponents to score a combined 38 runs.

That is literally not a typo. The White Sox scored 15 runs on June 12, the Angels scored 11 on June 18 and the Astros scored 12 runs in his last start on June 24.

The Indians are coming off a 13-run explosion and while their offense hasn’t been sensational it sure looked like it last night.

Urena is allowing a BABIP of .322 and a batting average of .291 on the season. He’s also had trouble getting out of jams leaving just 61.6 percent of runners on base this year. The one thing he’s been able to limit is home runs but he has still allowed four in his last three games and gave up three to the Angels in mid-June.

So while the Indians offense can only rely on Jose Ramirez to consistently hit the ball, any major league ball player can hit Urena and the Tigers bullpen consistently.

Amed Rosario, Jose Ramirez, Eddie Rosario, Bobby Bradley and Harold Ramirez are all limiting strikeouts and hitting the ball hard against righties. That hard contact in this lineup will be crucial against Urena, who already allows 53.1 percent of hard contact to begin with.

On the other hand, J.C. Mejia is slated to take the mound for the Indians. Mejia has been inconsistent but has shown signs of potential. In his last start against the Twins, Mejia went a full six innings and allowed one run with six strikeouts and two walks. He’s had two games where he allowed 10 runs combined in just 5.2 innings but he’s also had plenty of scoreless outings whether it’s in relief or starting.

The Tigers have potential against righties this year with Akil Baddoo, Jonathan Schoop, Robbie Grossman, Daz Cameron and Jake Rogers hitting for solid power and getting on base at a solid rate.

Still, this offense strikes out 25 percent of the time in the last 30 days and J.C. Mejia is capable of getting strikeouts and inducing ground balls. That would worry me, even with the Tigers only hitting 30.7 percent of ground balls in the last 30 days.

So with that, I’m going to roll with the Indians on the team total at 4.5 at -140 as my Tigers vs Indians prediction. The Tigers will likely be a running mate with the Indians but Urena has just been consistently bad this season. Mejia, on the other hand, has been inconsistent and is much harder to read at this point.

Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Indians Prediction: Indians Over 4.5 TT (-140)