After a slow start to the season, the Cleveland Indians hold a strong lead in the AL Central race. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays come into this series as contenders as well, sitting in the thick of a tight AL Wild Card race. The Tribe took two of three when these teams met in Cleveland, the Rays will look to return the favor with a series win at the Trop.
This series will be contested from Thursday, August 10, 2017 through Sunday, August 13, 2017 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The series opener on Thursday will be show on MLB Network for those outside the local viewing markets while the series finale on Sunday will be shown on TBS.
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Pitching Matchups
The Indians will send a tough collection of starters to the mound against the Rays in this series with Danny Salazar, Carlos Carrasco, Mike Clevinger and Corey Kluber expected to start the games on Thursday through Sunday, respectively.
Salazar has been throwing the ball well since coming off the DL. He’s allowed three runs in 20 innings, striking out 28 and allowing just eight hits.
The right-hander is only 4-5 with a 4.32 ERA this season, but he looks much more himself since coming off the DL. A healthy Salazar is hard to overcome. It’s a particularly difficult matchup for a rookie like Blake Snell who starts for the Rays on Thursday.
Snell spent some time in the minors after some early struggles with the big club, but he’s back now.
Overall, Snell is 0-6 with a 4.98 ERA in his 14 starts. Since returning from the minors he’s been a bit better, save for his first start back, but he’s still yet to record a win and the Rays are still only 4-10 when he takes the ball.
Carrasco is Friday night’s starter for the Tribe. His numbers are elevated from where you would expect them to be with a 4.06 ERA and 17 homers allowed.
The right-hander is tied for the team lead in wins with 10, but he hasn’t recorded a win since July 7. The Indians are just 1-4 in his five starts since then.
In his last two starts, Carrasco has allowed 10 runs on 11 hits and five walks in just 7.1 innings as his ERA has ballooned by half a run in those two starts. The worst of the two starts was on the road in Boston. Despite that, he’s still 7-2 with a 3.44 ERA on the road as he’s set to pitch at the Trop.
Matching up against Carrasco is another rookie, this time right-hander Jacob Faria.
For everything Snell hasn’t been able to do in his rookie campaign, Faria has done. The righty is 5-2 with a 2.81 ERA in 11 starts. The 23-year old collected quality starts in his first seven games, but had just one in the next three. He got back on track last time out, allowing just one run in six innings against a good hitting Brewers’ team.
Given the trends of both pitchers, Friday is a more favorable matchup for Tampa Bay than Thursday, but their best matchup of the series comes on Saturday when Clevinger opposes Chris Archer.
Clevinger has given the Indians some quality innings while injuries have swept through the rotation, but he’s making his first start in nearly two weeks and the last one resulted in five runs in three innings. After a hot start, he’s struggled recently to the point he was relegated to bullpen duty.
As for Archer, he’s the ace of a rather strong—albeit underrated—Rays’ rotation. Archer gives the Rays quality innings. He’s consistently getting Tampa Bay to the seventh and allowing the bullpen to line up behind him.
The All-Star is 8-6 with a 3.80 ERA in 154 innings. He’s outpitched those numbers given his 3.24 FIP, but luck and defense haven’t aided him. He’s not one to shut you out, but he’s gone six or more with three or fewer earned runs in eight straight.
After sending Clevinger to the mound Saturday, Cleveland warps the series with Corey Kluber on the bump on Sunday.
Kluber is 10-3 in 19 starts with a 2.65 ERA and a 0.912 WHIP. He’s truly an ace in the game and that’s rare to find.
While Archer won’t shut you out, Kluber absolutely will. He’s got electric stuff and can dominate the opposition. In fact, he’s delivered back-to-back complete games with just two total runs allowed combined. He’s allowed one or zero runs in eight of his last 10 games and has struck out at least 11 in five consecutive contests.
Trying to outpitch Kluber on Sunday will be the Rays’ Austin Pruitt. The third rookie for Tampa Bay in the four-game series. Pruitt, unlike the other two, isn’t a top-rated prospect. The 27-year old is starting more out of necessity than anything. He’s 6-3 with a 5.14 ERA split between the rotation and the pen.
Despite the mediocre numbers and lack of pedigree, he’s thrown two great games back-to-back. In those games, he’s combined for 12.1 innings, 12 hits, one run, two walks and eight strikeouts.
Injury Report
The Indians biggest strength, even with Danny Salazar throwing well again and several strong position players, is the bullpen.
The back of the game is how this team pushed to the World Series last year and it is the one place they stand above the rest statistically in 2017.
The pen, however, has seen Boone Logan and Andrew Miller go down with injuries, leaving them short-handed from the left-side and potentially exposed against good left-handed hitting.
Of course, with guys like Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw and Nick Goody, the team can still get lefties out late, but they no longer have a go-to matchup guy for Terry Francona to rely on.
Michael Brantley is dealing with a sore ankle as well and that could play a role in the series.
Meanwhile, the Rays have a ton of injuries in their rotation leading to the collection of rookies lined up for this series. Otherwise, Colby Rasmus is out for personal reasons and Kevin Kiermaier remains injured, but the rest of the team is pretty healthy.
Offensive Comparison
The Indians have outscored the Rays this season as these teams offer an interestingly look at two different philosophies: power versus contact.
Tampa Bay has exhibited a ton of power this year and have out homered the Tribe by a sizeable margin. The Rays power is a welcome sight for fans used to a strong pitching staff and little at the plate beside Evan Longoria.
This year Logan Morrison, Corey Dickerson and Steven Souza Jr. have all out homered Longoria. The third baseman, however, leads the way in doubles. The foursome has provided a good thump in the middle for the Rays, but they all—save for Longoria—have over 100 strikeouts.
The Indians have just one hitter—Edwin Encarnacion—with more than 100 strikeouts this year. They also have a much higher team batting average, better team OBP and better team OPS.
While Yan Gomes and Jason Kipnis have struggled at the plate, the Tribe has gotten production from the other positions and the team doesn’t have one-dimensional players. Jose Ramirez does have 18 homers and 34 doubles, but he’s also batting .314. Carlos Santana is batting only .243, but his OBP is .344 and he has 44 extra base hits.
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