Indians travel to Toronto to take on Blue Jays
Fresh off another series win the Cleveland Indians will travel to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays in a three game series.
The Cleveland Indians will get their first regular season look at Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as they travel to Toronto to face the Blue Jays. Cleveland and their fans got a good glimpse of Vladdy Jr. during this past Home Run Derby. It will be crucial for the Indians to keep Guerrero from sending a ball into the seats.
Indians pitchers versus Toronto’s hitters
Cleveland will feature Mike Clevinger, Trevor Bauer and Shane Bieber as their starting pitchers. Overall Cleveland pitchers have had their way in the past against Toronto’s hitters, however Freddy Galvis appears to be quite the thorn in the side of Indians pitching.
Freddy Galvis and Justin Smoak are the only Blue Jays hitters with some success against “Sunshine”. Galvis is 1-2 with a double and Smoak is 2-4 with a home run. Outside of that the rest of the lineup is 1-20 against Clevinger with 13 strikeouts.
Trevor Bauer has also been fairly successful when facing Toronto. Justin Smoak has also had success against Bauer, going 3-9 with one double and three runs driven in. Freddy Galvis is also 1-2 against Bauer with a home run. The other Blue Jays hitters who have faced Bauer previously is a combined 5-22 with nine strikeouts.
Shane Bieber has also had some success against Toronto, but again Freddy Galvis has also had success against him as well. Galvis is 1-2 with a home run against Bieber. Teoscar Hernandez is the only other hitter on Toronto who has driven in a run against Bieber (2). Blue Jays hitters have struck out eight times in 26 at-bats against Bieber.
Blue Jays pitchers versus Cleveland’s hitters
Toronto will be starting the trio of Ryan Borucki, Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman.
Cleveland has the fewest amount of at-bats against Borucki. Only Jake Bauers and Carlos Santana have faced him previously. Neither have a hit while Bauers struck out once and Santana has a walk.
The Indians have had limited success against Sanchez. Francisco Lindor is the only player with a batting average above .250. Lindor is 2-3 with a double. The rest of the Indians lineup is a combined 7-39 with eight strikeouts.
The largest sample size is against Marcus Stroman. Overall Cleveland is slashing .273/.308/.354 with an OPS .661. This includes eight doubles and eight runs driven, although they have not hit a triple or home run against Stroman. Tyler Naquin leads the way with seven hits in 12 at-bats with one double. Francisco Lindor is 5-15 with one double and Carlos Santana is 5-17 with three doubles. Cleveland surely knows how to gets against Stroman and may be able to hit their first home run against Stroman, that is if he is not traded before Wednesday’s game.
