Cleveland Indians: Previewing the 3 game set against the White Sox

The Cleveland Indians are set to take on one of the worst teams in baseball as the Chicago White Sox come to town.

The Cleveland Indians certainly have a way of keeping fans on the edge of their seats. After taking the last two games from the Astros, the Indians have found themselves one game above .500 yet again. No team has danced around .500 more than the Indians this year. Despite the best efforts of the bullpen to lose games, the Tribe keep winning.

Now comes a series where the Indians hopefully have no problems winning. The Chicago White Sox effectively peaked in the first week of the season when they were home run kings. Since then they have trickled down to the basement of the MLB. They are an abysmal 16-34 and are in peak rebuilding mode.

Surprisingly, this is the first time this year the Indians will face this division foe. While the season series’ with the Mariners, Astros, and Cubs are already over they are just now facing a division opponent for the first time. The MLB schedule makers can be real jokesters sometimes.

Here’s how these teams stack up

Chicago White Sox (16-34) vs Cleveland Indians (26-25)

Chicago White Sox: SS Tim Anderson, 3B Yolmer Sanchez, 1B Jose Abreu, DH Jose Rondon, RF Daniel Palka, 2B Yoan Moncada, CF Adam Enge, LF Trayce Thompson, C Omar Narvaez

Cleveland Indians: SS Francisco Lindor, LF Michael Brantley, 3B Jose Ramirez, DH Edwin Encarnacion, 1B Yonder Alonso, C Yan Gomes, 2B Jason Kipnis, CF Rajai Davis, RF Greg Allen

To make matters worse for the White Sox, a lot of their young, fun players have hit the DL. Leury Garcia and Avisail Garcia have both missed time due to leg injuries. The Indians can relate to the plethora of outfielders on the DL as they have lost Brandon Guyer, Lonnie Chisenhall, Tyler Naquin, and Bradley Zimmer all to the DL.

The Indians will likely feature Erik Gonzalez in their lineup at some point as he hasn’t played in a bit. Jose Abreu is quietly having himself a nice season. His slash line looks like .313/.375/.549. Not bad for a guy playing first base on the AL Central’s cellar team. Then again, the poor performance of the White Sox has overshadowed any outstanding performance from their lineup.