MLB Odds have the rangers at 45-1 to win the World Series, while the Indians are at 60-1.

The home field advantage figures to be a major factor in this game. Both teams have been excellent while playing at their home fields this season, but each team has really struggled while playing on the road. The Rangers are just 10-14 on the road this season and the Indians are the best home team in the American League with a 19-6 record in Cleveland.

These teams each have stellar offenses and this could be a very high scoring series. The Rangers started to slow down a bit offensively, but they will likely turn things around with Josh Hamilton back in the lineup. Hamilton is considered to be one of the best players in baseball and is an integral part of their lineup.

While Hamilton is important for the Rangers, Adrian Beltre may be even more important. Beltre has the potential to be one of the premier hitters in the game, but he has struggled to hit for a good average this season. The Rangers need him to perform in this series.

The Indians have a comfortable lead, but they need to continue to build it as every team goes through a tough stretch at some point in the season.

MLB odds have the Angels at 35-1 to win the World Series this season, and the White Sox at 40-1.

The Los Angeles Angles are 6-5 on the season and already find themselves 3 games behind the Rangers in the standings. The Chicago White Sox are 7-4 and they trail the Cleveland Indians by 1 game after 11 games.

The White Sox have managed to win their games through some great offensive production. They are within the top 5 teams in the MLB in Runs, Batting Average, On Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage. They have outscored their opponents by 15 runs to this point in the season. They’ll be the home team in this game and they have gone 4-2 while playing at home this season.

The Angels have not been nearly as consistent offensively, but they have been a great team in terms of pitching. Dan Haren and Jered Weaver have been carrying the load, collected all 6 wins for the Angels. The team is 6-0 in their starts and the pitchers have combine for 47.1 innings while only allowing 20 hits and 4 runs. Haren has only allowed a total of 13 batters on base by hits or walks.

Unfortunately the Angels will only have one of those two pitchers to take the mound in this series. This means that either Palmer or Chatwood will have to step up to help Weaver. In baseball picks, the Chicago White Sox are favorites to win this match.

However, if both teams would like to make the postseason again like they did last year then the Angels have a lot of work to do. Currently they sit 8 games behind the Texas Rangers in the battle for the AL West division and they also lag in baseball betting odds. While they do still play the Rangers 7 more times this season, if they have any hopes of making the playoffs this year they will have to string some wins together in a hurry.

Minnesota on the other hand is looking increase their lead over the rival Chicago Whitesox. Minnesota holds a 4 game lead in their division and would not like to lose any ground when playing other quality teams such as the Angels.

With the absence of Liriano and Pavano from this weekend’s rotation, the pitching match ups appear to be rather favorable for the Angels. On Friday Haren will take the mound against Duensing, Saturday pits Bell against Slowey, and Sunday will see Weaver versus Baker in a game that will be telecast on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.

Vladimir Guerrero was a part of five AL West title-winning teams, during his six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.

On Tuesday night, when he returns to Anaheim, the revived slugger will look to boost the Texas Rangers‘ chances of winning the 2010-crown. Guerrero hit .295 with 15 homers and 50 RBIs in his final season with the Angels, although he was limited to 100 games because of a torn chest muscle and an ailing knee. Los Angeles passed on bringing the 2004 AL MVP back to the team because of those injuries and his diminished role in the outfield. To be their designated hitter, the Angels added Hideki Matsui and the Rangers ended up signing Guerrero to a one-year deal worth $5.5 million.

To the team’s recent success, Josh Hamilton’s career-best 21-game hitting streak has also contributed. For this year’s All-Star Game with a .346 average, 18 homers and 57 RBIs this season, the outfielder is making a strong case to return to Anaheim. Hamilton matched a team record with 47 hits in June with a 468-foot homer in Sunday’s 10-1 win over Houston and he is hitting .477 (41 of 86) during his streak.

With consecutive wins, the right-hander, Scott Feldman (5-6, 5.32 ERA) has benefited from his team’s offensive prowess. In Thursday’s 6-5 comeback victory over Pittsburgh, he was bailed out after allowing 5 runs and 12 hits over six innings.

Joel Pineiro (7-6, 4.21), who has won four straight starts; allowing one run in each of the last three will oppose Feldman. He will make his first start against the Rangers since Aug. 10, 2006 with 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA over his last five home games.

The Angels send struggling Scott Kazmir to the mound Wednesday night when they continue their four-game series with the Royals in Kansas City, after letting a chance to return to .500 go by the boards.
To escape a season-long rut, three-time reigning West champion Los Angeles (26-28) is struggling. When they suffered the second loss of a season-high seven-game skid, the Angels have had a losing record since May. They had a chance to win a fourth straight game and climb back to .500 on Tuesday, after winning Monday’s series opener 7-1.

To take a lead they would never relinquish thanks to 3 2/3 perfect innings from the bullpen in a 6-3 victory, instead the Royals plated four runs off starter Joel Pineiro in the fifth inning. Kansas City reliever Robinson Tejeda got Juan Rivera to fly out and struck out Mike Napoli to end Los Angeles’ final threat of the night, after the Angels put runners on second and third in the sixth. Over Tejeda’s last 18 1/3 innings, he has given up one earned run.

Kazmir (3-5, 6.34 ERA) is failing to live up to expectations much to the baseball betting world’s disapointment. In Los Angeles, in his first full season and has given up four runs or more in five of nine starts and is 1-4 with a 6.91 ERA over his last five outings. Kazmir surrendered eight hits in 5 1/3 innings and six runs too in Friday’s 8-3 loss to Seattle.

Recently, Kansas City (22-31) has performed in a curious pattern. Since May 19, the team has had alternating three-game winning streaks with three-game losing skids. They need to be consistent. Against Los Angeles last season, Kyle Davies made two starts, scattered five hits and six walks over five innings and limited the Angels to one run each time and earning a 6-3 home win. He gave up five runs in five innings and was mostly ineffective on Friday at Boston.

Against the Seattle Mariners, Scott Kazmir was outstanding and was impressive in his first two starts with Los Angeles. Cliff Lee was satisfactory.

Kazmir struck out eight over 6 1/3 innings of his Angels debut and allowed two runs and three hits. With the Angels (23-26), Kazmir (3-4, 6.09 ERA) has struggled at times, early in the season but in his last outing, he came up with a strong effort. Over seven innings of a 10-7 victory at St. Louis on Saturday, he surrendered three runs and three hits.

Lee (2-2, 3.44) is coming off one of the worst starts of his career. With a 1.80 ERA, pitching complete games the last two, he won his last three starts against Los Angeles.

After rallying in the eighth inning to beat Detroit in consecutive games, Seattle (18-28) is looking to win three straight for the first time since April 19-21.

“We really needed a defibrillator to come in here and give us a shock because we didn’t have a heartbeat for quite some time, we lost some tough games that zapped some out of us but the last couple of games have been huge for us “, said Sweeney.

In a 5-3 victory on Tuesday, Milton Bradley delivered the winning single. Josh Wilson had a two-run single while Mike Sweeney hit a two-run homer, for a 5-4 win.

On Wednesday, Ichiro Suzuki, hit a team-high .335, went 0 for 9 with four strikeouts whereas in a 6-5 victory over Toronto, Juan Rivera was limited to a pinch-hitting role.

At home against Seattle, Los Angeles has won four straight games making it interesting for baseball betting.

Last season, they traded All Star first baseman Mark Teixeira to New York. This season they have lost third baseman Chone Figgins to the Seattle Mariners, right fielder Vladimir Guerrero to their rivals the Texas Rangers, and starting pitcher John Lackey to the Boston Red Sox. In spite of these losses, the Angels keep finding their way to the top.

When a well-oiled team is as reliable as the Angels are, they need very little tweaking during the off-season. Their most significant acquisition was the signing of designated hitter and 2009 World Series MVP Hideki “Godzilla” Matsui. The veteran slugger could be the last piece of the puzzle that the Angels have needed to get them back to the World Series.

With the absence of Chone Figgins, the leadoff role will fall to shortstop Erick Aybar. If he can get comfortable early then the Angels batters should be off to the start of a huge season. The Angels were the only team in Major League baseball to hit no Grand Slams last season. With the powerful lineup that they have this season, that should change.

Look for big things from the Angels this year. Once again, the AL West is theirs for the taking. Bodog.com is currently placing the baseball betting odds at 15/1 on the Angels winning the World Series this year.