Cleveland Indians: The 5 Most Important Series of 2017

Red Sox (August 21-24)

The Cleveland Indians hosting the Boston Red Sox has never been this special. The two best teams in the American League will meet in 2017 with two amazing additions (Edwin Encarnacion and Chris Sale) on squads that were already loaded last year.

With everyone picking either of these teams to take home the AL crown this coming season, this series could turn into an instant classic. Although the Red Sox host the Indians three weeks before this series, it will be in Cleveland where the two teams will meet for the final time in the regular season. A four-game series means the Indians and Red Sox will be able to showcase their starting rotation and entire team.

Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, and Josh Tomlin annihilated a healthy Red Sox. Now without their large bat in David Ortiz, the Red Sox must find a new identity and also find a way to beat the Indians.

These games will be packed and the atmosphere will be playoff-like. With a little over a month of the season to play, the division rankings will have started to taken their final shape, and this series will have everything riding on it.

The two series against Boston may be the toughest of the season, but as the Red Sox showed last year, their pitching does not do well under pressure.

A series win can lead to home-field advantage and an upper hand against Boston if there is a rematch.

Can Chris Sale pitch under pressure? Can the Indians continue to dominate the Red Sox or will they regress to normal Cleveland against Boston in the regular season? Will a lineup without Ortiz hold-up? Will the Indians pitchers be able to hold the Boston lineup to a few runs? Will the Red Sox adjust and win at Progressive Field?

This series will answer these questions and hundreds more.