Cleveland Indians: Corey Kluber’s chance to cement his status as ace

The Cleveland Indians will be led by Corey Kluber tonight, who has the chance to cement his status as this team’s ace with a great outing.

Cleveland Indians fans in attendance at Progressive Field on Tuesday, myself included, witnessed one of the greatest pitchers to ever take the mound lead his team to a victory.

Clayton Kershaw made a rare appearance in Cleveland, going seven innings and allowing just two runs in what was considered an average start for the ace. Trevor Bauer also allowed just two runs in 5.2 innings, so seems like a close competition between the two for the greatest in the game.

Anyway, Indians fans will get to see their ace on the mound tonight, when Corey Kluber makes his third start since returning from injury.

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Kluber has picked up two wins since returning from the DL, going six innings and allowing three runs in his last start, while he went six shutout innings before that.

While Carlos Carrasco emerged as the early ace of the staff, another dominant start by Kluber tonight would make him the unquestioned star of the group.

The key will be run support from the offense, which the team has not been great at doing consistently in 2017.

However, the Indians did put up a combined 15 runs in Kluber’s last two starts, so perhaps that is the start of a trend.

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The Indians need a win to avoid dropping back down to .500, and Kluber seems to be the perfect man to steer this team back toward the top of the AL Central. And one day after Andrew Miller proved he is indeed human, fans are hoping he can bounce back in a strong fashion.