Cleveland Indians: Series preview vs. the Detroit Tigers

Probable Pitchers

RHP Carlos Carrasco (CLE) vs RHP Mike Fiers (DET)

The road warrior Carlos Carrasco gets the start in Detroit to open the series. On the road this year Cookie is 3-0 with a 2.48 ERA. He also has 32 strikeouts and a WHIP of 0.86 on the road along with a complete game. It feels like Carrasco has been an entirely different pitcher on the road this year. This year against the Tigers he is 1-0 with a complete game win where he allowed only one run.

Carrasco will be taking on Mike Fiers who earned a win in his last start. He is 3-2 on the year but has not faced this dangerous Tribe lineup yet. His one home win came in a 12-4 thrashing of the Royals. Fiers hasn’t worked deep into games this year as he has only gone as far as six innings twice. In his career against the Tribe he is 2-1 with a respectable ERA of 2.42.

RHP Josh Tomlin (CLE) vs LHP Francisco Liriano (DET)

Josh Tomlin was not horrible in his last outing. Well, he didn’t lose the game at least. Tomlin allowed three home runs against the Yankees bringing his total to 13. All the team can ask of Tomlin is for him to keep them in the game to some degree. The Indians offense has taken off and he will likely have run support to work with. Plus in Tomlin’s one start against the Tigers he didn’t allow any runs on four hits, so they just might be the team he can beat.

Francisco Liriano will look to get some revenge on the Indians after they beat him back in early April. The Indians gave him his only loss this year actually. He has allowed a run in every start he’s made this year and has walked 20 batters combined. If the Indians can get to him early they can run him out of the game as he hasn’t worked very deep into games this year either.

RHP Trevor Bauer (CLE) vs TBA (Michael Fulmer or Matthew Boyd)

Trevor Bauer has struggled going deep into games recently himself. In the month of May his ERA is up to 5.06. In his last outing he only worked 4.2 innings. Bauer started out the season working deep into games and pitching fairly well. But recently his pitch count has gone up early in games. While he hasn’t allowed a lot of runs, it’s forced the bullpen to come in sooner. With how the Indians bullpen has played, that isn’t a good thing.

The Tigers have not named a starter for Wednesday’s game. But it’s likely it will be between Michael Fulmer and Matthew Boyd. Neither of the two have beaten the Indians this year.