Cleveland Indians-Kansas City Royals Series Preview

Cleveland Indians-Kansas City Royals Series Preview 6/2-6/5

The Cleveland Indians (27-24) welcome the division-leading Kansas City Royals (30-22) to town for a four-game series. The Indians are coming off one of their most emotional victories of the season, a walk-off extra inning win over the Texas Rangers. Meanwhile, the Royals come to town having won six straight and opening a 2.5 game lead over the Indians in the division. 

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The pitching matchups for the series will be as follows:

"Thursday: Yordano Ventura (4-3, 5.17 ERA) vs Carlos Carrasco (2-0, 2.45)Friday: Edinson Volquez (5-4, 3.74) vs Danny Salazar (5-3, 2.39)Saturday: Ian Kennedy (4-3, 3.03) vs Josh Tomlin (7-1, 3.79)Sunday: Dillon Gee (2-2, 4.28) vs Corey Kluber (4-6, 4.15)"

Carrasco will be making his first start since injuring his hamstring on April 24th in Detroit. The Indians will require a roster move before tonight’s game as they activate Carrasco from the 15-day disabled list. The Tribe currently has nine relievers in the bullpen as rookie Mike Clevinger joined the pen yesterday. He would appear to be the logical choice; however, Carrasco will be on an 80-pitch limit in his first start back so the Tribe could keep Clevinger around as insurance should Carrasco be forced out of the game early. If Clevinger is not the choice, reliever Austin Adams would likely be the next in line to be optioned out.

The Indians are coming off a robust month of May in which they scored the second-most runs in the American League. The Indians will look for Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and Lonnie Chisenhall, all of which hit over .310 in the month of May. The Indians will also be welcoming back rookie outfielder Tyler Naquin, who joined the team in the series finale against the Rangers but did not play. Naquin took the place of suspended outfielder Marlon Byrd and with all the right-handed pitchers the Royals will be starting, could see some significant playing time this series.

The Royals enter this series with a two-game lead over the White Sox for the division lead, having won eight of their last ten games. This despite injuries to several key players including Salvador Perez, Alex Gordon, and Mike Moustakas (who is out for the year). The Royals are led by All-Stars outfielder Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer, each hitting over .300 on the year.

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This will be the second meeting between the division rivals. The Indians took two of three from the Royals a month ago at Progressive Field. The Indians have enjoyed great success against their fellow AL Central counterparts, going 14-7 (.667) on the season to this point. The Indians will look for that success to continue as they attempt to regain the upper hand in the division and retake the lead.