- Joined
- Oct 3, 2019
- Messages
- 9,859
- Reaction score
- 28,239
- Points
- 135
The Indians return home for a four-game series against the Twins, who lead the season series 7-5 despite the Indians having the better overall record. The Twins are in last place at 59-77 and they’re worse on the road with a record of 27-41. In the 12 games against the Indians they are averaging 5.75 runs per game as opposed to 4.29 against everybody else. The Indians have had a lot of difficulty with this team, especially keeping them from scoring.
The Twins rank 14th in the A.L. in team ERA, ahead of only Baltimore. Their team ERA is 5.00 against 4.35 for the Indians. This could be a fairly high scoring series, but with Allen, Civale, McKenzie, and Quantrill scheduled to start the Indians should be in pretty good shape. The bullpen has been pretty bad lately, however. The Red Sox laid waste to the Tribe bullpen with 17 earned runs in 21 innings over six games.
The Twins have nine pitchers on IR and they traded their ace, Jose Berrios. No wonder they're 14th in ERA. Kenta Maeda and Michael Pineda are on IR while Berrios and J.A. Happ have been traded. Their top four starters on Opening Day are gone. Taylor Rogers, one of the best relievers, is also on IR. There's no excuse for the Indians not to score some runs this week. All their hitters are healthy except Naylor and Berto. Lavarnway is a better hitter than Berto, anyway.
With Civale starting Tuesday the only pitchers missing are Bieber and Sandlin, although Karinchak is in the shop for repairs. Now that it doesn't matter the Indians are getting healthy.
SS Jorge Polanco is hitting .314 against the Indians and has two walk-off hits. Byron Buxton has finally returned from yet another injury and went 2-for-30 before getting a couple of hits yesterday. He was 7-for-9 against the Tribe before going on IR. C Mitch Garver has a 1.184 OPS against the Indians but he is on IR.
The Twins will start 6’8” rookie right-hander Bailey Ober tonight. Ober is 2-2, 3.98 and has been coming on strong. His July ERA was 3.97 and in August it improved to 2.30. He started a game against the Indians in August and went 6 innings, allowing 2 earned runs. His vulnerability is that lefties are hitting .289/.855 against him. The first time through the order batters are hitting .217 but that increases to .308/.911 the second time they face him. The key is to load up on lefties and get to him the second time through.
Logan Allen goes for the Tribe. In his last two starts he went 12.2 innings allowing only 6 hits, 3 walks, and 3 earned runs. He’ll be looking for his third consecutive quality start.
Nelson Cruz is by far the Twins best hitter against lefties (.362), but he's been traded. The rest of them are pretty bad against lefties (Arraez .220, Kepler .172, Sano .236). Buxton is the next best at .292. Allen could have a good outing if he is as sharp as he's been the last two starts.
The Twins rank 14th in the A.L. in team ERA, ahead of only Baltimore. Their team ERA is 5.00 against 4.35 for the Indians. This could be a fairly high scoring series, but with Allen, Civale, McKenzie, and Quantrill scheduled to start the Indians should be in pretty good shape. The bullpen has been pretty bad lately, however. The Red Sox laid waste to the Tribe bullpen with 17 earned runs in 21 innings over six games.
The Twins have nine pitchers on IR and they traded their ace, Jose Berrios. No wonder they're 14th in ERA. Kenta Maeda and Michael Pineda are on IR while Berrios and J.A. Happ have been traded. Their top four starters on Opening Day are gone. Taylor Rogers, one of the best relievers, is also on IR. There's no excuse for the Indians not to score some runs this week. All their hitters are healthy except Naylor and Berto. Lavarnway is a better hitter than Berto, anyway.
With Civale starting Tuesday the only pitchers missing are Bieber and Sandlin, although Karinchak is in the shop for repairs. Now that it doesn't matter the Indians are getting healthy.
SS Jorge Polanco is hitting .314 against the Indians and has two walk-off hits. Byron Buxton has finally returned from yet another injury and went 2-for-30 before getting a couple of hits yesterday. He was 7-for-9 against the Tribe before going on IR. C Mitch Garver has a 1.184 OPS against the Indians but he is on IR.
The Twins will start 6’8” rookie right-hander Bailey Ober tonight. Ober is 2-2, 3.98 and has been coming on strong. His July ERA was 3.97 and in August it improved to 2.30. He started a game against the Indians in August and went 6 innings, allowing 2 earned runs. His vulnerability is that lefties are hitting .289/.855 against him. The first time through the order batters are hitting .217 but that increases to .308/.911 the second time they face him. The key is to load up on lefties and get to him the second time through.
Logan Allen goes for the Tribe. In his last two starts he went 12.2 innings allowing only 6 hits, 3 walks, and 3 earned runs. He’ll be looking for his third consecutive quality start.
Nelson Cruz is by far the Twins best hitter against lefties (.362), but he's been traded. The rest of them are pretty bad against lefties (Arraez .220, Kepler .172, Sano .236). Buxton is the next best at .292. Allen could have a good outing if he is as sharp as he's been the last two starts.
