Cleveland Indians: Previewing the road series against the Yankees

The Cleveland Indians return to the Bronx for the first time since the ALDS to face the New York Yankees in a three-game weekend series.

The Cleveland Indians couldn’t have picked a better time to have their offense heat up. After a high-scoring doubleheader against the Blue Jays, the Tribe are heading out for a weekend series in New York.

They’ll meet the team that ended their World Series hopes last year; the New York Yankees. The Yankees are coming into this series as one of the hottest teams in baseball. They are coming off a series where they beat the Astros 3-1 and have won 10 of their last 11.

The Tribe are 10-4 against the Yankees in the last two seasons, but this Yankees team has gotten better. By adding a guy named Giancarlo Stanton and the emergence of Didi Gregorius, they have lived up to the mantra of the “Bronx Bombers.” The Indians offense looks to have found their groove as well, which means we could be in for a high-scoring series.

Let’s take a look at the lineups for these two teams.

Projected Lineups

Cleveland Indians (17-14) vs New York Yankees (21-10)

Cleveland Indians: SS Francisco Lindor, 2B Jason Kipnis, 3B Jose Ramirez, LF Michael Brantley, DH Edwin Encarnacion, 1B Yonder Alonso, C Yan Gomes, RF Tyler Naquin, CF Bradley Zimmer

New York Yankees: LF Brett Gardner, RF Aaron Judge, SS Didi Gregorius, DH/LF Giancarlo Stanton, C Gary Sanchez, CF Aaron Hicks, 1B Neil Walker, 3B Miguel Andujar, 2B Gleyber Torres

Let’s all enjoy the fact that we get to laugh at how terrible of a defensive catcher Gary Sanchez is. He will probably hit three home runs, but still. Gleyber Torres has shown promise since coming up to the majors. His slash line is .317/.356/.746 and he has five RBIs on 13 hits.

Aaron Judge continues to rake and Giancarlo will smack five homers or strikeout 10 times, or both. The Indians actually have passed the Yankees in home runs and are second in the league at 45, while the Yankees are at 44. The Yankees do lead all of baseball in RBIs.

The Indians bats have been hot in the last week. Edwin Encarnacion has already smacked four home runs this week. Here in the month of May his average is all the way up to .533.

Jason Kipnis also seems to have come out of his funk in the last few games. In the month of May he is batting .353 with two doubles on six hits. These two bats are ones the Tribe lineup desperately need, as the struggles the team had with hitting early this year can partially be attributed to their lack of hitting.