Thursday, September 24, 2020, Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio, 6:10 p.m. ET
White Sox at Indians Betting Preview: White Sox (-198), Indians (+166)
Chicago White Sox
The White Sox surrendered a game-ending home run for the second straight night Wednesday, as Jordan Luplow’s ninth-inning blast against Gio Gonzalez gave Cleveland a 3-2 win. Chicago (34-22) took its fourth straight defeat and sixth loss in eight games to fall out of first place in the American League Central, a half-game behind the Minnesota Twins and two games ahead of the third-place Indians.
Chicago has scored just 23 runs in its past eight games. Rookie center fielder Luis Robert is mired in an 0-for-28 slump.
Left-hander Dallas Keuchel (6-2, 2.04 ERA) is slated to start Thursday, his first outing against the Indians this season. In eight career appearances (seven starts) against Cleveland, Keuchel is 4-1 with a 2.79 ERA. He is in fine form overall, going 4-0 with a 1.34 ERA in his past six starts.
Cleveland Indians
Cleveland (32-24) will aim for a four-game sweep of Chicago and its fifth straight win overall as right-hander Zach Plesac looks to continue his dominance against the White Sox on Thursday.
Plesac (4-2, 1.85 ERA) has struck out 18 Chicago batters in 14 scoreless innings over two starts this season, going 1-0. He has made four career starts against the White Sox and is 1-2 with a 2.42 ERA in those outings.
The Indians have hit consecutive walk-off home runs for the first time since Aug. 23-24, 2002. Cleveland opened the scoring Wednesday with another long ball, as Carlos Santana smacked a 441-foot shot leading off the second inning for his 215th homer with the Indians, tied for sixth on the franchise’s all-time list.
White Sox at Indians Betting Pick for September 24, 2020
White Sox first baseman and AL MVP candidate Jose Abreu said this week that Chicago “relaxed a little bit” after clinching a postseason berth on Sept. 17, “and that is why we got caught in this moment.” Another strong pitching performance from the top of the Cleveland staff keeps the White Sox skidding before they try to regroup at home against the similarly slumping Chicago Cubs this weekend.
White Sox at Indians Betting Pick:
Indians 4, White Sox 3
White Sox at Indians Best Bet for September 24, 2020
After the middle two games of the series played out as tight affairs decided in the late innings, another pitching duel between the Indians and White Sox seems imminent. If Plesac maintains his scoreless-innings streak against Chicago this season, the White Sox must remain patient to succeed against the Cleveland bullpen.
White Sox at Indians Best Bet: UNDER 8 total runs (-120)
–Field Level Media
