At 7:05pm our American League Total of the Month is on the Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians 'under' the total. Nobody has a bigger home field advantage in baseball than the Cleveland Indians. Not even the Red Sox. Cleveland is 26-11 (.703) at Jacobs Field this season, and is an even more amazing 44-18 (.710) at home in their last 62 games. Their pitching is certainly one of the reasons for their success this year, and nobody has stepped up bigger than righthander Fausto Carmona, who is 8-3 with a 3.21 ERA. Oakland has been hit hard by the injury bug this season, but sometimes from bad luck a little good fortune will emerge. Case in point is tonight's starter, lefthanded journeyman Lenny DiNardo. Due to DL stints from Estaban Loaiza and Rich Harden, DiNardo has gotten a chance in the rotation, and he has certainly made the most of it. The 26 year old southpaw has really only had one bad start all season, a June 16 loss to the Cardinals. Other than that, the former Red Sox has done nothing to suggest that he doesn't belong in the rotation, although the multitude of injuries to the relievers on this team probably means that he is needed back in the bullpen as soon as Rich Harden returns to his starting job - which could be later this week. The bigger problem for the A's is that they just can't score any runs. Even with their five run "outburst" on Tuesday, they have only scored a total of ten runs in the five games so far on this road trip. Take the 'under'. As always, good luck...Al McMordie.<INPUT type=hidden value=Y name=Purchased>
