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The Cleveland Guardians have enjoyed plenty of success at home this season, posting a 13-9 record to date.

My Reds vs. Guardians predictions see Cleveland picking up its fourth consecutive win on home soil Friday night.

Let's get into why with my MLB picks for May 15.

Who will win Reds vs Guardians today: Guardians moneyline (-135)

Andrew Abbott's profile is littered with red flags. He ranks in the 28th percentile in xERA, the 15th percentile in xBA, and the 15th percentile in K%. He's allowing a lot of good contact and not missing many bats, which is a bad combination.

By comparison, Tanner Bibeesits 57th percentile in xERA, xBA, and K%. His xFIP and SIERA are also lower than his ERA, a signal better results are ahead.

Factor in the Cleveland Guardians are a Top-8 offense in average and wOBA vs. lefties and there is a lot working in their favor.

COVERS INTEL: Tanner Bibee has allowed an average of 1.9 earned runs over 20 home starts since the beginning of last season.

Reds vs Guardians Over/Under pick: Under 8.0 (-115)

Bibee has allowed five runs at home through five starts, and seven over his last eight dating back to last season. He is a nightmare to deal with in Cleveland.

His excellent play should continue against a Cincinnati Reds offense that ranks 26th in wOBA vs. righties on the road.

While Abbott is not pitching overly well, he should benefit from playing in a more pitcher-friendly ballpark. He has allowed five runs through three road starts this season – including nearly six shutout innings against the high-powered Cubs.

Reds vs Guardians odds

• Moneyline: Cincinnati +115 | Cleveland -135
• Run line: Cincinnati +1.5 (-175) | Cleveland -1.5 (+150)
• Over/Under: Over 8.0 (-110) | Under 8.0 (-110)

Reds vs Guardians trend

The Cleveland Guardians have hit the Game Total Under in 25 of their last 40 games at home (+9.35 units, 21% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Reds vs. Guardians.

How to watch Reds vs Guardians and game info

Reds vs Guardians latest injuries

Reds vs Guardians weather

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In episode three of this series, I began a two-part exploration of the encounter between Toronto’s George Bell and Boston’s Bruce Kison on June 23rd, 1985. Having visited Kison side of things, we will now consider the life and times of George Bell.

In the late 1970s scouts all around major league baseball began descending upon the Dominican Republic, which had suddenly been identified as highly lucrative territory. The DR was home to countless talented young ball players and those ball players due to the country’s dire economic conditions were highly exploitable.

With the unemployment rate around 40% teams realized they could sign players for a lot less than American prospects asked for. And if those Dominican players did happen to get signed by a major league team, they were sent to the states socially isolated by the language barrier and dependent upon agents who were often crooked and looking to swindle ’em all over again.

A cruel irony recalled by George Bell, one of those young Dominican players, was that while navigating this labyrinth of shameless exploitation, he was the one looked at with suspicion. American players found any reason they could to dislike him. His English wasn’t polished enough, he was too this, not enough that, didn’t play the game the right way.

In 1982, while playing for minor league Syracuse, Bell stepped in against Lynn McGlothen, an 11 year Major League vet pitching in AAA ball in the hopes of one last call up. In a game years earlier while pitching for the Cardinals, McGlothen beamed one New York Mets batter then brushed back another three innings later, then hit that batter too. The intent was so transparently clear that the Mets Dave Kingman charged the mound straight from the dugout.

McGlothen did not hesitate to throw at a batter if he had the inclination and he seemed to resent George Bell for the same superficial reasons everybody else did. Bell was a hotdogger. It was decided. McGlothen drilled him in the face, fracturing his cheek and jawbones. While his teammates stormed the field to exact revenge, Bell arrived on the ground certain that his career in baseball, his one chance at a better life was over.

“He’s dead,” Bell thought of McGlothen, not because Bell would kill him or because his teammates would, but because fate would one day catch up with him.

Two years later, McGlothen lost his life in a fire. His friend was also killed with everyone else escaping the home. Bell who’d fully recovered and made his way to the majors, addressed the tragedy sometime after seemingly unprompted. He expressed his sympathies for the friends and loved ones of those who died then said in McGlothen’s fate, “People like that decide it. They have a bad heart. No way they can stay alive.”

You might find those words to be callous, even cruel. I mean I do. Then again, I doubt either of us have persevered through the circumstances Bell did only for somebody to break his face and potentially ruin his life just for playing baseball with a little bit too much swagger.

Baseball was George Bell’s one and only chance at a better life, the sort of life we’d wish for anybody, and he was fiercely, sometimes even violently protective of that chance.

Interleague play began in 1997, so 2026 will be the 30th season of MLB teams playing outside their own “league.” In reality, Major League Baseball became one league in 1999 when the positions of league president were eliminated and the umpiring crews were merged. The National League and American League still exist, of course, but they are now more like NFL-style conferences than actual separate “leagues.” The names remain because they have more than a century of history each.

The last “merger” was the adoption of the universal designated hitter in 2022.

For the first six years of interleague play, teams played only those in the matching division of the other league. In 2003, that was expanded to include other teams in the opposite league, and now every team plays every other team every year.

The Cubs and White Sox have met every year since that first matchup in 1997. They played one three-game series in each of the first two years, then six games a year split between the North Side and South Side from 1999-2012. In 2013 and 2014 that was reduced to four games. Again the teams played six times in 2015, then four times in 2016 and 2017, six times in 2018 and four times in 2019. In 2020-21, it went back to six, then four from 2022-24, and now it’s back to six.

All of that adds up to 152 games. The Cubs have won 77, the Sox 75. The Cubs have outscored the Sox 719 runs to 693. Most of that advantage has come since 2023 — over the last three seasons, the Cubs are 13-2 against the Sox and have outscored them 83-62 in the 15 games.

Here are 10 notable games from the rivalry, in chronological order.

June 16, 1997: Cubs 8, White Sox 3

This was the first game of the series, and happened at a time when the Cubs were off to a horrible start (27-40). The Sox, expected to contend, were also under .500 at 30-36. It was played on the South Side.

Kevin Foster threw six solid innings and Cubs hitters teed off on ex-Cub Jaime Navarro, scoring six runs in the first three innings. Ryne Sandberg went 3-for-5.

I will never forget sitting in the stands that day. I asked a Sox fan whether he would root for the Cubs when they played Cleveland, the Sox’ division rival. Answer: “Oh no, we could never do that.”

June 5, 1998: Cubs 6, White Sox 5

The Sox took a 2-0 lead off Steve Trachsel in the first, then the Cubs went up 3-2 in the third and made it 5-2 in the fifth on Sammy Sosa’s 17th homer of the year. But the Sox got three more off Trachsel to knot it at 5-all in the sixth and that’s where it stayed until the 12th, when Brant Brown hit a walk-off homer.

This video is from the White Sox broadcast [VIDEO].

June 20, 2006: White Sox 7, Cubs 0

No history of this series would be complete without noting the Michael Barrett/A.J. Pierzynski fight. (Also note that the Cubs lost the game, part of a horrid May in which they would go 7-22.

Here’s the fight:

Collisions at the plate like that are now outlawed in MLB. Good thing, too.

June 21, 2008: Cubs 11, White Sox 7

Jim Edmonds homered twice and Aramis Ramirez and Mike Fontenot also went deep in a nine-run fourth inning that led the Cubs to this win, though manager Lou Piniella had to call on Kerry Wood to save the game in the ninth after the Sox rallied off Bob Howry.

Here’s the entire game:

June 25, 2009: White Sox 6, Cubs 0

Derrek Lee and Carlos Zambrano had to be separated in the Cubs dugout on the South Side after Big Z got torched for four runs in the first inning.

Here’s how it went down [VIDEO].

General manager Jim Hendry put Big Z on team suspension:

“His conduct wasn’t acceptable,” Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said. “His actions toward his teammates and staff were not acceptable.

“He will not be at the ballpark tomorrow. We’ll play with 24. We’ll play with 24 before we tolerate that kind of behavior.”

Asked if there was any doubt in his mind that Zambrano would pitch again for the Cubs this year, Hendry said he “certainly wouldn’t rule it out” and added “the rules of the game usually don’t allow long, long-term suspensions.”

It didn’t last long. Zambrano made his next turn in the rotation July 3, when he held the Brewers to one run in seven innings.

June 13, 2010: Cubs 1, White Sox 0

The Stanley Cup was paraded around Wrigley Field by the Blackhawks, who had just won their first NHL title in 39 years.

Then Ted Lilly took a no-hitter into the ninth inning, when Juan Pierre’s leadoff single broke it up:

Carlos Marmol then entered the game. 2010 was his best year, with 38 saves and a 41.6 percent strikeout rate. But on this night he was wild. He walked Andruw Jones, then balked the runners up a base. After a strikeout, Alex Rios was intentionally walked. Marmol then got Paul Konerko to hit into a 3-2 force play at the plate and Carlos Quentin to fly to short center to end the game. (You can see the rest of the inning after Pierre’s hit in the video above.)

Aug. 27, 2021: White Sox 17, Cubs 13

In a wacky game that lasted more than four hours, the Cubs blew a 6-0 first-inning lead and found themselves trailing 9-6 after three and 13-6 after five. This was a month after the big selloff at that year’s trade deadline and the Cubs pitchers that night were Keegan Thompson, Adrian Sampson, Michael Rucker, Rex Brothers, Trevor Megill, Ryan Meisinger and Manuel Rodriguez. Of those, only Megill is still on an active MLB roster.

But the Cubs mounted a comeback of sorts. Trailing 14-7 going into the eighth, they scored three on doubles by Ian Happ and Jason Heyward. The Sox then matched that with a three-run homer by Yasmani Grandal.

So the Cubs again trailed by seven going to the ninth. The Sox called on Craig Kimbrel, who had not pitched well since they acquired him at the deadline from the Cubs for Nick Madrigal and Codi Heuer.

He did not pitch well on this night, either. With two out, Patrick Wisdom homered, his second of the game. Matt Duffy then walked, and Happ smashed a two-run homer to bring the Cubs within four [VIDEO].

You don’t suppose… Nah. The 2021 Cubs were pretty bad. Kimbrel struck out Austin Romine to end the game. In three appearances for Kimbrel against the Cubs after the trade, he threw 2.2 innings and allowed six hits and six runs, with three home runs, for a 20.25 ERA.

June 4, 2024: Cubs 7, White Sox 6

The Sox came into this game 30 games under .500 at 15-45. The Cubs were at .500 at 30-30.

And the Sox teed off on Shōta Imanaga, scoring five runs in the fourth, in part due to an error on third baseman Christopher Morel.

The Cubs fought back to tie the game 5-5 after six, with Morel and Patrick Wisdom both hitting two-run homers in that inning. But Hayden Wesneski served up a solo homer to Luis Robert Jr. and the Sox led 6-5 going to the bottom of the eighth, when Ian Happ’s two-run double gave the Cubs a 7-6 lead.

Hector Neris was given the save opportunity. He issued a one-out walk to Oscar Colás and the Sox sent in a pinch-runner, a rookie named Duke Ellis, who was making his MLB debut. Ellis promptly stole second, but then Neris picked him off (after a review) [VIDEO].

Neris then got Corey Julks to pop up to end the game.

June 5, 2024: Cubs 7, White Sox 6

Once again, the Cubs fell behind early to this awful Sox team, 5-1 going to the bottom of the fifth. The Cubs scored a pair in the fifth, one on a groundout and the other on a balk, to make it 5-3. Then they scored three in the seventh, on a wild pitch, a sac fly and a single (I told you that Sox team was awful!), to give them a 6-5 lead.

Wesneski, for the second straight night, allowed a key Sox home run, this one by Paul DeJong, that tied the game 6-6 in the eighth.

The game remained tied until the bottom of the ninth. Michael Kopech entered to pitch for the Sox. He threw ball one to Mike Tauchman. And then… [VIDEO]

Mike Tauchman was a fun player to have around for a couple of years.

May 16, 2025: Cubs 13, White Sox 3

On an absolutely gorgeous Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field almost exactly a year ago, this was what we might call the “Pete Crow-Armstrong Game.”

PCA went 4-for-5 with a three-run homer and six RBI as the Cubs demolished the Sox, who actually took a 2-0 lead in the first off Cade Horton, who was making his first MLB start (after a relief outing in his MLB debut following an opener the previous weekend in New York).

PCA’s homer broke a 2-2 tie and keyed a six-run inning [VIDEO].

Here’s to a good weekend of Cubs baseball and some wins on the South Side. The teams will also meet later this year at Wrigley Field, Aug. 17-18-19.

Your 2026 New York Mets: We’ve been through a lot.

“We’ve been through a lot. It feels like when we went through that stretch — every time we got down a couple of runs, the game was over. That was the feeling. Now we’re down three in that first inning, and you still feel good.” -Carlos Mendoza [MLB]

But enough about the 18-25 Mets bad vibes…

“We’re better than that, especially the past couple of days. We needed to be better.” -Carlos Mendoza [MLB]

…let’s talk about the [insert Gerald voice] GOOD VIBES [Note: This is a reference who the only people that will get currently have a young child that they read aloud two ‘Elephant & Piggie’ books every night and use my very specific voice for the Elephant character named Gerald]

“[Regular celebrations in the home clubhouse have followed, featuring pumping music and, as Benge put it,] ‘definitely way better’ vibes.” -Anthony DiComo [MLB]

Speaking of vibes; Swaggy V[ibes] update

“I am always confident at the plate — I feel good right now for sure. I just have to continue to be consistent.” -Mark Vientos [New York Post]

The Mets are [fact checks by looking at data, does math, looks at dictionary] currently on a winning streak

“There’s a lot to like. We won in a lot of different ways. We swung the bat well. We created traffic. We ran the bases well. We got timely hitting. The pitching was outstanding. … Overall, the whole series, I thought we played complete, complete games.” -Carlos Mendoza [MLB]

Especially because the Mets have been, putting it nicely, ‘lackluster’ to start the year; I’m really getting R.A. Dickey vibes where, even if the team is not winning, McLean is just joy to watch every start because of how unique of a pitcher he is

“I’m pretty happy with getting into the seventh today. I just had to find what was working, get creative a couple times and find different pitches that were working.” -Nolan McLean [MLB]

Guys being bros

“I’ve already been treating [AJ Ewing] like a rookie.” -Carson Benge [MLB]

Benge might be a rookie but this is veteran-level response to a reporter asking you to ‘talk about the play where you did bad’…

“It’s baseball. It’s going to happen. It happens to the best of us. So being able to try and get the next play, try and get the next out, the next pitch, just really helps me keep my head on straight.” -Carson Benge [MLB]

…and this is Lucas Duda/Pete Alonso-level [complimentary] responding to be asked how your first big league walk off felt, yeah man, it was ‘definitely a first’…

“[Carson Benge on his first MLB walk off hit] felt amazing. Definitely a first. Indescribable.” -Carson Benge [MLB]

…though Christian Scott might the true new team Lucas Duda/Pete Alonso quote giver

“You’re obviously having a lot more fun when you’re winning baseball games.” -Christian Scott [MLB]

This is catnip for anyone who was into sabermetrics in the aughts

“That’s just part of my identity as a hitter. I’m patient. I see a lot of pitches, and I make pitchers work hard.” -A.J. Ewing [MLB]

I genuinely don’t know a lot about Freddy Peralta, but seems like a good teammate

“It reminds me of my debut and how proud you feel about yourself. I know that [Ewing] feels great about it, and I think that we made him feel better with a win.” -Freddy Peralta [MLB]

My read is this is a very polite and concise way of replacing a response that could be more aggressive, way longer, and include the word ‘runway’ a lot

“We look at [having two rookies in the OF with Juan Soto] and say that could be a really productive outfield for a long time.” -David Stearns

After being constantly burned by squinting at the stats and scouting reports of Mets OF prospects over the years, hoping they become full time >2+ WAR starters (e.g. Lastings Milledge, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, or Nick Evans if in LF), I’m getting my hopes up once again

“I’m confident in my ability. I’m just going to play the same game I’ve been playing and do what I do.” -A.J. Ewing

Jared Greenspan of MLB.com had a really nice post about Christian Scott’s pitch data but tl;dr below

“The stuff is electric.” -Carlos Mendoza [MLB]

Buffalo Bisons 4, Worcester Red Sox 3 (BOX)

Worcester took the lead early in this one against the Bisons (TOR — and here’s your annual reminder that the plural of bison is “bison”) thanks to a solo shot by first baseman Nick Sogard. Sogard is heating up, with four multi-hit efforts in the last six games. Over the past eight games, his slash line is .379/.474/.724 with two home runs and seven RBI. I can think of a team that needs a spark who could use a Nick Sogard. 

The Bison(s) got all of their runs in the second inning off of recently demoted starter Jake Bennett, who allowed seven hits and four runs in 3 ⅓ innings, throwing 70 pitches. Seth Martinez, Noah Song, Tayron Guerrero combined for 4 ⅔ shutout innings.

A Mikey Romero two-run shot in the ninth cut the lead to the final score of 4-3. Sogard and Nate Eaton each had two hit days and Kristian Campbell walked three times. 

Worcester’s starter is TBD at 6:05 on Friday. 

Portland Sea Dogs 5, Hartford Yard Goats 3 (BOX)

Ahbram Liendo had a monster day at the plate for the Sea Dogs on Thursday, hammering his first homer of the season, part of a three hit day with three RBI, and a stolen base. 

Marvin Alcantara also added a solo shot. Blake Wehunt started and went 3 ⅓ innings, striking out seven Yard Goats (COL). Reliever Max Carlson got the win and Cooper Adams a two inning save. 

John Holobetz (1-3, 5.40) will get the ball for the Sea Dogs on Friday at 7:10. 

Bowling Green Hot Rods 5, Greenville Drive 1 (BOX)

The Drive had eight hits on the day against the Hot Rods (TB) but couldn’t get any of them to the plate until a meaningless run in the ninth. Henry Godbout was 3-for-5, and Antonio Anderson had two hits and an RBI on the day. 

Starter Dylan Brown struck out seven in his second start since the promotion to Greenville, allowing two runs in five innings. 

The Drive will send Marcus Phillips (0-2, 7.64) to the mound at 6:45 on Friday. 

Salem RidgeYaks 6, Fredericksburg Nationals 3 (BOX)

Enddy Azocar opened the scoring for the RidgeYaks with a solo shot, his sixth, in the third inning, part of a two-hit, two-RBI day. Azocar has a .279 average and a .846 OPS on the year. 

Skylar King, Ty Hodge, and Avinson Pinto all contributed two-hit games as well for Salem, part of an 11-hit effort in the 6-3 win over Fredericksburg (WAS). 

Starter Barrett Morgan was outstanding, allowing one hit in five shutout innings for the win. Morgan was an 11th-round pick for the Sox a year ago. Jose Bello picked up a four inning save. 

Jason Gilman (0-0, 1.23) will take the bump for Salem at 6:35 on Friday.