Baltimore is still in a tightly contested race with the Tampa Bay Rays for 1^st place in the AL East as well as the best record in the American League while Cleveland will not be in the playoffs this season after winning the AL Central last season. Cleveland won the first two games in the series while Baltimore took game three on Saturday by a score of 2-1. Will the Orioles split the series with the Guardians 2-2 with a win in game four on Sunday or will the Guardians take the series 3-1? Let’s take a deeper dive into how these teams are performing this season. 

Baltimore still has a 1.5-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays for 1^st place in the AL East as well as for the best record in the American League and will have a winnable schedule for the rest of the regular season. The Orioles have compiled a record of 13-9 in September and are coming off a 2-1 win on the road against the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday which also ended their three-game losing streak. One of the runs came in the 1^st inning when Gunnar Henderson scored off a double hit from Anthony Santander.

The Guardians won the AL Central last season, however, they won’t be in the playoffs this year and will not go over their win total of 86.5 wins they had entering the season as Cleveland currently sits with a record of 74-82. The Cleveland Guardians have compiled a record of 10-12 in September which includes Saturday’s 1-2 loss against the Baltimore Orioles. The lone run for Cleveland came in the 7^th inning when Andres Gimenez hit a one-run home run.

BookMaker has the Baltimore Orioles listed as -115 money line favorites on the road against the Cleveland Guardians for game four of the series on Sunday. Cleveland has won six of the last ten and two of the last three games while winning by an average margin of .7 runs per game over the last ten and 1 run per game over the last three contests in the series. 

The Orioles will have a slight advantage at pitcher for game four of the series as Baltimore will send Kyle Gibson to the mound while Cleveland will send Triston McKenzie to the mound on Sunday. Gibson is 14-9 this season with a 5.00 ERA while recording 149 strikeouts while McKenzie will be making his first start since June after coming off the IL.

Kyle Gibson is 1-1 with a no-decision in his last three starts this season while allowing a total of seven runs while recording 12 strikeouts in those matchups with his last start coming on the road against the Houston Astros in which Gibson allowed three runs and struck out five batters in a no-decision.

Baltimore enters this game with a better record, however, Cleveland has been the better team in the series, winning six of the last ten and two of the last three games. The Guardians have won by an average margin of .7 over the last ten and 1 run per game over the last three games in the series. As a result, I am taking the money line for the Cleveland Guardians at -105 on BookMaker for this matchup on Sunday.