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When Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Dylan Cease has pitched at home this year, he is a stellar 3-0 with a 1.63 ERA. On the road, he has not been good. Cease takes the mound at home on Wednesday night against the AL Central rival Minnesota Twins. The Sox are favored on the MLB odds.

How to Bet Twins at White Sox MLB Odds & TV Info

When: Wednesday, 8:10 PM ET
Where: Guaranteed Rate Field
Probable pitchers (away/home): Bailey Ober/Dylan Cease
TV: MLB Extra Innings
Stream/gameday audio: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/

Why Bet on Minnesota?

The Twins are without two regulars in center fielder Byron Buxton, who isn’t close to coming back with a broken hand, and catcher Mitch Garver. He’s a bit closer to returning from a groin injury but it won’t be here. Starting pitcher Michael Pineda is scheduled to make a rehab start Thursday with Triple-A St. Paul. Pineda went down with right elbow inflammation two weeks ago.

Nelson Cruz could move up the career HR list soon. He’s now at 434 career homers, tying him with Juan Gonzalez and Andruw Jones for 47th place on baseball’s all-time home run list. Only 14 players in baseball history have hit more home runs after turning 40 than Cruz, who turns 41 on July 1.

Not as many of his fly balls carry into the seats as the past couple of seasons — 19.0%, as opposed to 26.2% last year and 23.4% in 2019 — but part of that may be attributable to the new baseballs in use. And in an era of skyrocketing strikeouts, Cruz’s rate has dropped below 20%, to 19.2, for the first time in a decade.

Reliever Jorge Alcala is forcing opposing hitters to chase 34.6 percent of the time, which is in the 95th percentile of all major league pitchers, after improving his slider and four-seam fastball. The soon-to-be 26-year-old has limited hitters to a .191 average against his four-seamer and a .205 against his slider. While Alcalá’s velocity has gone up on both pitches, he’s also seen an increase in his whiff percentage going from 22.8 percent on his four-seamer in 2019 to 25.6 this season.

It’s Bailey Ober (0-0) on the mound here. Ober allowed four earned runs over 4 1/3 innings in the Twins’ loss to the Reds last Tuesday. Ober gave up a solo homer to Tucker Barnhart in the top of the third and then the Reds poured on three more runs in the top of the fifth. He gave up six hits in all and issued two walks while recording only two strikeouts but escaped with a no-decision.

It broke a run of three strong starts for the right-hander, who’d surrendered just three runs over his previous 13 frames. Ober has a 4.64 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and 23:4 K:BB over 21.1 innings this season. The rookie made his MLB debut on May 18 vs. the White Sox and pitched four innings, giving up four runs off four hits. His mistakes included early home runs given up to Jake Lamb and Yasmani Grandal.

Why Bet on Chicago?

The injury-ravaged White Sox have lost another outfielder to the injured list in Jake Lamb. On Tuesday, he was place on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 28, with a strained right quadriceps. It’s unclear how long he might be sidelined. Lamb has slashed .224/.333/.424 with five home runs through 31 games.

To take his spot, 1B/OF Gavin Sheets was called up from Triple-A Charlotte. He was hitting .292/.352/.472 with seven home runs through 41 games in Triple-A this year. Sheets, a 2017 Sox second-round draft pick and the son of former major leaguer Larry Sheets, was with the Sox on June 3 and 4 but did not play.

In addition, outfielder came off the injured list Tuesday. Hamilton figures to take over as the team’s primary center fielder while the outfield continues to experience a massive amount of injuries. He is batting .217/.246/.406 with three doubles, two triples, two home runs, 10 RBI, 13 runs scored and five stolen bases.

It’s Dylan Cease (6-3, 3.81) on the mound. Cease limited the Pirates to two runs — one earned — over 5 2/3 innings last Wednesday in the White Sox’ 4-3 victory. Cease was pulled after allowing a two-out single to Kevin Newman in the bottom of the sixth. He had thrown 99 pitches at that point and finished with seven strikes and induced 16 swinging strikes. He also walked just one batter, marking the fourth time in five starts that he hasn’t walked more than one. Over his last seven starts, he’s allowed at least five runs three times while yielding two or fewer in the other four outings.

Cease faced the Twins on May 11, allowing three earned over five innings. He struggled with command, reaching 60 pitches in the third inning. His biggest mistake was a second-inning home run to Jorge Polanco, off a fastball left over the heart of the plate.