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The Indians reach the halfway point of the season with a record of 42-39, having lost eight of nine. They have seven games in seven days before the much needed All-Star break; three in Tampa and four at home against KC.
The Rays have fallen 4.5 games back of the Red Sox after losing 12 of their last 17. They have eight pitchers on the IL and their offense is average. As a team they're hitting .230/.719 against RHP's and .227/.682 against lefties. Fangraphs has their wRC+ at 99. Lately they've been struggling; only 22 runs in their last six games. In terms of A.L. rankings, they're 13th in batting average, 13th in slugging, and 14th in strikeout percentage. They whiff a lot (over 27%) and don't get many hits or hit for power. But they are 3rd in walk percentage and 1st in stolen bases, so they play some small ball to compensate.
They have the best defense in the A.L. and their pitching staff has a 2.97 ERA at home (4.07 away) so their formula is to eke out a few runs and suppress the other team's offense with pitching and defense. They have one of the best bullpens in the league, ranking 2nd in xFIP.
Since June 1 they are 14th in runs per game.
Notable injuries include Tyler Glasnow (5-2, 2.66), Josh Fleming (6-4, 3.79), and Chris Archer (4 IP this year).
DH Austin Meadows has an OPS of .823 with 16 HR's. Former Indian Joey Wendle is hitting .275/.793 and .309/.904 against RHP's.
The Rays have a number of former Indians, including Yandy Diaz, having a disappointing year at .244/.686. Francisco Mejia, former highly ranked prospect, is now 25 and splitting the catching duties. He's hitting .250/.694, a little above his career averages. The other catcher, Mike Zunino, is hitting .200 but has 18 HR's. A classic bad hitter who punishes mistakes.
J.P. Feyereisen, traded to the Yankees in the Andrew Miller deal, has also landed in Tampa and is having a good season; 37 innings, 1.95 ERA, .139 OBA.
It seems like there are some similarities between the Indians and Rays. Both have fallen off lately due to injuries to key starting pitchers. Both are challenged offensively. Both are struggling to keep from falling too far behind the leader in their division.
Tonight Logan Allen faces LHP Rich Hill, another former Indian. So we go from 37-year-old Zack Greinke to the 41-year-old Hill, who is 6-3, 3.70 on the season. It's the young lefty against the old lefty. Hill averages a shade over 5 innings per start and opponents are hitting .212 against him. Lefties hit only .161 against Hill; righties do better at .225/.717. In June his ERA is 4.56 so he has not been as effective lately after a brilliant May (0.78).
Logan Allen has an 8.38 ERA. In his first start since coming back from Columbus he went 3.2 innings against Detroit allowing 2 runs. Hopefully he can push it out to five innings tonight without giving up too much damage against a team that is not scoring a lot of runs lately.
Tomorrow it's Mejia against RHP Michael Wacha, 1-2, 5.26. Wacha has made 9 starts in 14 appearances. He's been better as a starter; opponents are hitting .261/.673. Lefties are hitting .301/.822 and he has a 6.61 ERA in June. Batters are hitting .311 with runners on base and .353 with RISP. However, in his last start he held the Red Sox to one hit in five innings. The start before that he was hammered by Seattle. He's been wildly inconsistent.
The same can be said for JC Mejia; 6 runs in his last start against Houston, one run the start before that against the Twins, and six runs the start before that against Pittsburgh. Mejia is due for a good start since he seems to be alternating.
Wednesday afternoon it's Hentges against TBD. Hentges has been rocked in his last two starts, giving up 12 runs in a combined six innings. I was hoping he turned the corner after throwing five shutout innings against the Pirates, but then he got blasted to pieces by the Twins and Astros - two teams with some serious right-handed power bats. Meadows and Wendle bat left-handed so maybe Hentges has a better outing this time.
The Rays have fallen 4.5 games back of the Red Sox after losing 12 of their last 17. They have eight pitchers on the IL and their offense is average. As a team they're hitting .230/.719 against RHP's and .227/.682 against lefties. Fangraphs has their wRC+ at 99. Lately they've been struggling; only 22 runs in their last six games. In terms of A.L. rankings, they're 13th in batting average, 13th in slugging, and 14th in strikeout percentage. They whiff a lot (over 27%) and don't get many hits or hit for power. But they are 3rd in walk percentage and 1st in stolen bases, so they play some small ball to compensate.
They have the best defense in the A.L. and their pitching staff has a 2.97 ERA at home (4.07 away) so their formula is to eke out a few runs and suppress the other team's offense with pitching and defense. They have one of the best bullpens in the league, ranking 2nd in xFIP.
Since June 1 they are 14th in runs per game.
Notable injuries include Tyler Glasnow (5-2, 2.66), Josh Fleming (6-4, 3.79), and Chris Archer (4 IP this year).
DH Austin Meadows has an OPS of .823 with 16 HR's. Former Indian Joey Wendle is hitting .275/.793 and .309/.904 against RHP's.
The Rays have a number of former Indians, including Yandy Diaz, having a disappointing year at .244/.686. Francisco Mejia, former highly ranked prospect, is now 25 and splitting the catching duties. He's hitting .250/.694, a little above his career averages. The other catcher, Mike Zunino, is hitting .200 but has 18 HR's. A classic bad hitter who punishes mistakes.
J.P. Feyereisen, traded to the Yankees in the Andrew Miller deal, has also landed in Tampa and is having a good season; 37 innings, 1.95 ERA, .139 OBA.
It seems like there are some similarities between the Indians and Rays. Both have fallen off lately due to injuries to key starting pitchers. Both are challenged offensively. Both are struggling to keep from falling too far behind the leader in their division.
Tonight Logan Allen faces LHP Rich Hill, another former Indian. So we go from 37-year-old Zack Greinke to the 41-year-old Hill, who is 6-3, 3.70 on the season. It's the young lefty against the old lefty. Hill averages a shade over 5 innings per start and opponents are hitting .212 against him. Lefties hit only .161 against Hill; righties do better at .225/.717. In June his ERA is 4.56 so he has not been as effective lately after a brilliant May (0.78).
Logan Allen has an 8.38 ERA. In his first start since coming back from Columbus he went 3.2 innings against Detroit allowing 2 runs. Hopefully he can push it out to five innings tonight without giving up too much damage against a team that is not scoring a lot of runs lately.
Tomorrow it's Mejia against RHP Michael Wacha, 1-2, 5.26. Wacha has made 9 starts in 14 appearances. He's been better as a starter; opponents are hitting .261/.673. Lefties are hitting .301/.822 and he has a 6.61 ERA in June. Batters are hitting .311 with runners on base and .353 with RISP. However, in his last start he held the Red Sox to one hit in five innings. The start before that he was hammered by Seattle. He's been wildly inconsistent.
The same can be said for JC Mejia; 6 runs in his last start against Houston, one run the start before that against the Twins, and six runs the start before that against Pittsburgh. Mejia is due for a good start since he seems to be alternating.
Wednesday afternoon it's Hentges against TBD. Hentges has been rocked in his last two starts, giving up 12 runs in a combined six innings. I was hoping he turned the corner after throwing five shutout innings against the Pirates, but then he got blasted to pieces by the Twins and Astros - two teams with some serious right-handed power bats. Meadows and Wendle bat left-handed so maybe Hentges has a better outing this time.
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