Cleveland Indians: Previewing the 2 game set at Wrigley

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CLEVELAND, OH – APRIL 25: Jason Kipnis #22 celebrates with Francisco Lindor #12 of the Cleveland Indians after Lindor scored on an error during the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Progressive Field on April 25, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /

Storylines

Can we not hear about the 2016 World Series anymore?

Hey guys, turns out the 2016 World Series was a pretty big deal. The Indians blew a 3-1 lead, Jon Ross hit a homer in game seven that nearly sent the Indians packing, Rajai Davis tied game seven for the Indians, Jason Heyward gave a stupid speech, and the Cubs broke a 108 year curse.

Okay I just gave you every storyline you’re going to hear in the broadcasts this week. You can promptly mute your TV’s and listen to Hammy’s radio call or whatever sad music you prefer. Oh, one of the games is on ESPN? That means you will likely hear those storylines at least 10 times in the broadcast. I encourage you not to make a drinking game out of it.

Josh Tomlin is in the bullpen.

In case you thought the Indians bullpen couldn’t get any worse, Josh Tomlin has been sent there to try and pull himself together. While he has been capable of working a few clean innings, high pressure situations are not his forte of late. Still, it will be interesting to see if the move helps fix his problems at all.

Best/Worse case scenario

Worse case 0-2 series loss

This is a pretty tough week for the Indians. They just finished a weekend series against the World Champion Astros and now have to face the Cubs at Wrigley before coming home to face the Astros again in a four game set. They’ll be seeing a plethora of dominant pitchers and frankly the team is not in a place right now where they can win a lot of these games.

Best case 2-0 series win

Maybe, just maybe the Indians can take on two beatable pitchers and come home with an even split on the road trip and get back above .500. The Indians can hit when they want to and that leads to winning as long as the bullpen doesn’t continue to blow things wide open. That is a tall order to ask of them.

Next: Could prospect Shane Bieber be promoted soon?

The series kicks off tonight at 7:05 EST and tomorrow at 8:05 EST because why not? Here’s to a rebound that gets the team back on track.

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