The Cleveland Baseball Club will play host to the Kansas City Royals to open up Progressive Field.
Entering Monday it is a tale of two teams that have the complete opposite records of what was expected. The Cleveland Baseball Club is 1-2 after avoiding a sweep by the Detroit Tigers while the Kansas City Royals enter 2-1. The two teams are set to square off in their first of two meetings this week at Progressive Field Monday.
Cleveland will start Logan Allen in his first start for the ball club since being acquired in 2019. Allen started previously for the Padres, but has only seen very limited action out of the bullpen in Cleveland. Allen has a career 5.40 ERA, 1.774 WHIP, and 5.6 K/9 in 38.1 career innings. Even though Allen is the starter, it is possible this will be a short outing in a piggyback start scenario. Shane Bieber is slated to start on Wednesday and Triston McKenzie is yet to make an appearance this season. As a way to limit innings for McKenzie and capitalize on effectiveness for Allen this could make a lot of sense.
The Royals will send Danny Duffy to the mound and there are a few Cleveland hitters with a track record against him. Lefty-masher Jordan Luplow is 3-8 with 1 double and 1 home run. Jose Ramirez is 7-31 with 2 doubles and 1 home run along with 5 RBI and 4 walks. Eddie Rosario is 5-27 with 8 strikeouts. Roberto Perez surprisingly has a triple as one of his 3 hits off of Duffy. It is going to be a rather tough test for Cleveland to solve Duffy and make sure the offense continues their success from Monday’s win.
