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The Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians square off on Thursday with first pitch set for 1:10 p.m. ET. The game takes place at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. Minnesota will start Chris Archer (2-3, 3.14 ERA) while Cleveland sends Shane Bieber (3-4, 3.07 ERA) to the mound in this divisional matchup.
The Twins (43-35) have taken two of the four games of this five-game series and will look to win the divisional series on Thursday. Ahead of this series finale, Minnesota holds a two-game lead over the Guardians in the AL Central. Archer will be making his 15th start of the year and is coming off his best outing of the season. He pitched five innings and gave up only one hit while striking out five. Minnesota will return home on Friday to host the Baltimore Orioles in a three-game series.
The Guardians (38-34) have won two of the games in this five-game series. They snuck away with a 7-6 victory in 10 innings on Wednesday as Josh Naylor hit a two-run walk-off home run. Cleveland is hoping that that result can spark some momentum as they are 2-6 over their last eight games. Bieber has faced the Twins once already this year. He pitched six innings and gave up seven hits, but only one earned run while striking out seven. Once this series wraps, the Guardians will welcome the New York Yankees to town for a three-game weekend series.
Twins vs. Guardians
Pitchers: Chris Archer vs. Shane Bieber
First pitch: 1:10 p.m. ET
Twins local broadcast: Bally Sports North
Guardians local broadcast: Bally Sports Great Lakes
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)
Odds, picks & predictions
Run Line: Clevland -1.5
Run total: 8.5
Moneyline odds: Minnesota +140, Cleveland -165
Moneyline pick: Cleveland -165
The Guardians are coming off a big walk-off win on Wednesday. They are hoping this sparks their lineup to wake up and want to pair that with another good outing from their ace. Bieber dominated Minnesota in mid-May and between the starters, he gives his team the best chance to win on Thursday.
Player prop pick: Luis Arraez over 1.5 hits (+155)
I don’t usually bet on players getting two hits in a game, just because multi-hit games aren’t super common, and it’s already tough enough to get a hit in the major leagues. However, Arraez is having an absolute year, hitting .337 — the second-highest batting average in the MLB. Arraez is 6-20 in his career with Bieber and is hitting him as well as anyone else in the team’s lineup. He has at least two hits in three of his last six games.
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