It has been far from a stellar start for the Cleveland Baseball Club as they are looking to avoid being swept by the Detroit Tigers.
The opening series between the Cleveland Baseball Club and Detroit Tigers has clearly belonged to the home team. The Problem? This series is being at Comerica Park in Detroit. It was a 3-2 loss on Opening Day for Cleveland followed up with a 5-2 loss Saturday and things are not looking good. It is still very early in the season, but things are not starting off on the right foot. With Cleveland searching for their first win of the season they will also be attempting to avoid being swept by the Detroit Tigers and fall to 0-3 to start the year.
Aaron Civale is Cleveland’s starter Sunday as they try to regroup. Civale finished 2020 with a 4-6 record, 4.74 ERA, 1.324 WHIP, 8.4 K/9 in 12 starts last season. There are times when things look really impressive when Civale is on the mound and there are others that still show he’s a young pitcher who needs to develop. There are a couple of Tigers hitters with some success against Civale in the past, but in a very small sample size. Victor Reyes leads the charge going 4-8 with 1 double and 1 triple. JaCoby Jones is 2-6 with a double and Jeimer Candelario is 2-3 with 1 triple. Candelario is someone to watch Sunday as he started off 2021 with 4 hits in 8 at-bats.
Detroit’s starter will be Tarik Skubal, someone who struggled in his first season in the big leagues. Skubal had a 5.53 ERA, 1.219 WHIP, 3.1 BB/9, and 10..4 K/9 in 32 innings pitched last season. Cleveland had 12 at-bats against Skubal last season slashing .433/.433/.933/.1.367. This is an extremely sample size and necessarily indicative of how things will go in the future for when Cleveland faces Skubal.
