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The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians square off on Sunday with first pitch set for 1:40 p.m. ET. The game takes place at Progressive Field in Cleveland, OH and will only be available on local TV or through an MLB.tv subscription. Shane Bieber (4-5, 3.24 ERA), coming off his most impressive start of the season, is scheduled to take the hill for the Guardians. The Tigers will start reliever Tyler Alexander (2-3, 4.45 ERA), which insinuates a bullpen day.
The Tigers (37-55) will try to stave off a four-game sweep on Sunday. But to do so, they will have to score some runs, something they didn’t do in two of the three games in this series so far. Detroit has lost three games in a row. Rookie outfielder Riley Greene had one of the Tigers’ five hits in Saturday’s 10-0 loss. He has driven in eight runs in seven games versus the Guardians this year. This will be Alexander’s fifth start of the season. His last extended outing lasted 3.1 innings while giving up five hits and one earned run.
By winning 10-0 on Saturday, the Guardians (46-44) recorded their largest shutout victory of the season. All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez was a big part of the triumph — he homered in each of the first two innings and drove in five runs. And it was Jose Ramirez bobblehead day! He leads all American League players with 75 RBIs. Bieber, a former Cy Young Award winner, has experienced ups and downs this season because of a pretty significant drop in velocity. But in his most recent start, he tossed Cleveland’s first complete game of the year and needed only 95 pitches to do it in a 4-1 win over the White Sox.
Tigers vs. Guardians
Pitchers: Tyler Alexander vs. Shane Bieber
First pitch: 1:40 p.m. ET
Tigers local broadcast: Bally Sports Detroit
Guardians local broadcast: Bally Sports Great Lakes
Live stream: MLB.tv (subscription)
Odds, picks & predictions
Run Line: Cleveland -1.5
Run total: 7.5
Moneyline odds: Detroit +190, Cleveland -225
Moneyline pick: Cleveland -225
The Guardians have won the first three games of this series, including the 10-0 shutout victory on Saturday. Jose Ramirez homered twice while teammate Josh Naylor added a long ball of his own. The Tigers going with a bullpen day doesn’t really inspire confidence against this lineup. If Bieber can be as effective as he was in his last outing, Cleveland will head into the All-Star break completing a four-game divisional sweep.
Player prop pick: Jose Ramirez over 1.5 total bases (-120)
Ramirez leads the Guardians in both home runs (19) and RBI (75) with an OBP of .368. He has a three-game hitting streak going and is coming off a two-home run game. Before playing in the All-Star Game on Tuesday, Ramirez will tally at least two total bases on Sunday.
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