Cleveland

Cleveland heads out on road to face Twins

The Cleveland Baseball Club begins their first road trip to the season as they will face the Minnesota Twins in a four game set.

The Cleveland Baseball Club is heading out on the road coming off the disappointing 4-0 loss to the White Sox Wednesday. Their opponent? The reigning American League Central Champion Minnesota Twins. Cleveland will play four games as they will battle for first place in the division.

The Twins offense has yet again propelled them to a division lead (4-1). Minnesota has outscored their opponent 36-20 in 5 games, 14 more and 5 less than Cleveland in one less game.

The biggest challenge for Cleveland will be shutting down Nelson Cruz who is on absolute fire right now. Cruz is 8-21 with 3 doubles, 3 home runs, and 11 RBIs. Unfortunately for Cleveland, Cruz has quite the history against them. Cruz is slashing .245/.309/.527/.836 with 19 doubles, 1 triple, 24 home runs, and 48 RBIs in 86 games.

Luckily Cleveland’s pitching staff has been excellent to start the season with an 2.13 ERA in 55 innings. The starting rotation has been absolutely dominant to start the year.

While their opponents should be noted (Royals, White Sox), there is the potential for this performance to carry over in a very crucial series against the Twins. If Cleveland is going to at least split the series they will need Shane Bieber, Mike Clevinger, Carlos Carrasco, and Aaron Civale to duplicate their first outings. Splitting the series would be an acceptable outcome against a team that is the favorite to win the division.

Cleveland Previous post Cleveland drops final game against Chicago 4-0
Brad Hand Next post It is time to be concerned with Brad Hand
Close