The Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians kick-off a three-day, four-game series on Friday night. The series will feature a double-header on Saturday as the Twins try to maintain a slim lead atop the AL Central. The Tribe were the preseason favorites to run away with the division, but have yet to put everything together. Will this be the weekend Cleveland jumps to the top of the division?
This series will be contested from Friday, June 16, 2017 through Sunday, June 18, 2017 at Target Field in Minneapolis.
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Pitching Matchups
The Indians will miss both Ervin Santana and Jose Berrios when they journey to Minnesota. That’s fortunate for the Tribe as those two are the only real reliable arms the Twins have in the rotation.
Instead, Nik Turley will kick off the series, making his second career start. Adalberto Mejia will start the first game of the Saturday doubleheader and Kyle Gibson is lined up for Sunday. For the second game in the doubleheader, the Twins haven’t announced the starter for the second game. Chris Heston, who was recently demoted, could get the nod.
For the Indians, Mike Clevinger and Ryan Merritt will get the call to start Saturday with Carrasco opening the series on Friday and Trevor Bauer getting the nod on Sunday.
For Friday’s matchup, Carrasco is the coming off his sixth win and has the more established track record. He’s struggled a bit in his career against the Twins, but is the Indians best starter this year. He’s 6-3 with a 3.36 ERA and 1.000 WHIP in 75 innings.
The starting pitching has been a problem this year for Cleveland, but that generally is excluding Carrasco. That said, Carrasco has seen his ERA jump in recent games. He’s allowed four or more runs in three of his last five starts.
As for Truly, there’s not much to go on at the Major League level. The 10-year minor league vet finally made The Show in a June 11 start against the Giants. He went four innings, allowing four runs on eight hits. He has a career 3.50 ERA in the minors and had a 3.49 ERA at Triple-A before getting the call.
In the double-header, the Indians have the edge by name. Heston is nothing more than a journeyman arm while Mejia was looking good until his last start. He allowed nine runs in 3.2 innings against the Mariners his last time out. He’ll need to show he can rebound from that.
Clevinger is 2-3 with a 4.09 ERA and 1.212 WHIP over 33 big league innings this year. He gets back to the Majors for the start. He’s often the forgotten man on the Tribe, but is a valuable swing man. Merritt, on the other hand, is a prospect that got some fame from his postseason performance last year.
The 25-year old southpaw only has one regular season start plus one start against the Blue Jays in the postseason. He’s 6-5 with a 3.96 ERA at Triple-A this year. Those numbers aren’t great nor is his WHIP. He’s struggled a bit locating in the strike zone. We’ll see how much that bites him against the Twins.
After the doubleheader, the teams will get back on the field early on Sunday with Bauer and Gibson on the mound.
Neither of Sunday’s starters have had much success this year though both have found success in the past. This year, Bauer has a 5.85 ERA while Gibson’s ERA is 6.79. We could see a lot of offense.
Who's Hot?
It has finally happened. Edwin Encarnacion was the big signing of the offseason and had a very slow start, but he’s hitting well right now.
The slugger is 7-for-17 in his last five games with a couple homers. He’s batting .317 with seven bombs and 15 RBIs in his last 23 games.
While on the topic of bad starts turning around. The Twins have their own player in that camp in Byron Buxton. The talented, Twins center fielder is 7-for-20 with a couple homers over the last week. He’s stolen three bases in that time and has just five strikeouts which is down considerably given his start to the year. He’s been getting on base at a .330 clip over the last month so it’s been a steady trend upward.
Other slugging Twins right now include Robbie Grossman and Brain Dozier, both of whom are providing some pop around Miguel Sano who just won’t slow down. The All-Star voting now is reflecting that, too.
That said, he is just 4-for-23 in his last six games.
Who's Not?
The typically strong bullpen of the Indians has been an issue the last week. Andrew Miller has allowed a run in each of his last two games, giving up four in two-thirds of an inning in his last game.
Miller had allowed just two one earned run prior to the last two games. Boone Logan gave up a home run in a third of an inning in his last start and has been inconsistent over the last few outings, too.
In addition to Sano’s less-than-stellar last week, Max Kepler is just 4-for-25 in that same time.
On the pitching side, Craig Breslow and Matt Belisle are not providing relief right now. Belisle’s ERA is 8.22 for the season and Breslow’s is 5.09. Breslow’s given up seven runs in his last two games, spanning two innings. The Twins have lost the last seven games Breslow has pitched.
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