The Reds and Indians will engage in an Ohio battle Sunday (1:10 p.m.) in their last game before to the All-Star break, but one of these teams enters fighting a massive struggle when its starter takes the mound.

The Reds are 4-17 when Tyler Mahle pitches, dating to the end of the 2018 season. Though a 4.36 ERA and giving up 1.7 home runs per nine innings is nothing to write home about, he just seems to be snake-bit as the team is averaging 2.94 runs of support during his starts this season.

Indians starter Trevor Bauer has been all over the place this season. Since the beginning of June, in six starts, he has allowed five earned runs in three of them and one run or fewer in the other three. Despite the ups and downs, Cleveland has won each of his past five starts.

Bauer is aided by having the league’s best bullpen with regard to ERA, but the Reds counter with a bullpen that is fourth in ERA. Neither offense has a lot of pop, with both ranking in the bottom eight in the MLB in runs per game.

The Reds enter the weekend as the best Under team in the league with the total in 65.1 percent of its games going Under and 55.4 percent of the Indians’ games going Under. The only other team in the league with 55 or more percent of its game going Under is the Brewers, and with this pitching matchup and these bullpens, another looks to be on the docket.

The play: Reds vs. Indians Under 9 ¹/₂