Cleveland Indians: Previewing the weekend series against the Royals

The Cleveland Indians return home from a tough road trip to take on an underwhelming divisional foe in the Kansas City Royals.

It was anything but a pleasant road trip for the Cleveland Indians this past week. The Indians went 1-4 on their five-game road trip and currently sit at .500. Somehow that’s still good enough for first in the AL Central, but it won’t cut it for long.

The Indians split a quick two-game set with the Milwaukee Brewers in their last series. Their only win on the road trip was the last game against the Brew Crew.

Now the Indians have returned home and will try to right the ship against the lowly Kansas City Royals. The Royals currently sit at 12-25 and are fourth in the miserable AL Central. They are coming off a series where they dropped two of three against Baltimore after steamrolling them in the first game.

It’s already been a forgettable season for Royals fans and it’s only May. They are dead last in the league in team pitching with a team ERA of 5.29. The first time these teams faced off this year it was a pretty forgettable series.

The weather was crappy in early April and it really affected how the series was played. Now they will face off in Cleveland again but this time with much better weather.

Let’s see how they stack up this time around

Projected lineups

Kansas City Royals (12-24) vs Cleveland Indians (18-18)

Kansas City Royals: LF Jon Jay, RF Jorge Soler, 3B Mike Moustakas, C Salvador Perez, 1B Lucas Duda, 2B Whit Merrifield, DH Cheslor Cuthbert, CF Alex Gordon, SS Alcides Escobar

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

The Royals will have catcher Salvador Perez back in the lineup this time around. He was on the DL for the first series between the teams. The Royals seem to be unable to figure out the DH position. They have used a total of 10 different guys in the DH position.

I listed Chester Cuthbert as he has played the position nine times this year. Only Moustakas has played it more. But realistically you could stick the DH next to any of those guy’s names and I’d believe it.

The Indians continue to be home run hitting machines. On Wednesday against the Brewers they actually managed to string together multiple hits to score in other ways. Against the poor Royals pitching, this lineup might be able to get the bats going strong.