The Cleveland Indians are looking to bounce back against the Kansas City Royals. This comes after a lackluster series loss in Baltimore.
Dropping two out of three games to the Baltimore Orioles was not a good look for the Cleveland Indians this past weekend. The good news is that the Tribe will take on another lackluster opponent in the Kansas City Royals. Cleveland and Kansas City just faced each other a week ago where the Tribe took two out of three at home. The Indians will look to repeat their success against their division rival.
In their last series Cleveland won two out of three by an average score of 4.67 to 3.25. The only reason Cleveland’s margin of victory is so small was due to a disastrous outing from Brad Hand which saw a three-run lead in the ninth turn into a two-run deficit. Hopefully Hand will not be as overworked this time around to avoid a similar performance.
The Indians will send three excellent pitchers to the mound in this series. Trevor Bauer, Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac in that order. Bauer was great in his last start against Kansas City but the same cannot be said for Clevinger’s and Plesac’s last starts. Both were on the wrong side of lopsided losses. Clevinger and Plesac were both tagged for seven runs in shortened appearances. The fact it came against one of the worst teams in the league is a bit disheartening. Hopefully everything in the world will right itself and the law of averages will take over and have two of the Tribe’s better pitchers reverting to their better forms.
There are five games left before the All-Star Break and the Indians need every win they can get. Cleveland still trails in both the division and Wild Card race. Winning the series in Kansas City would be a great start towards coming back into the playoff hunt.
