Cleveland Indians: Previewing the weekend series against the Twins

Storylines

More players returning to health

We saw Lonnie Chisenhall make an immediate impact after his return from the DL. Brandon Guyer also came back this week and looked to be in mid-season form after being hit by a pitch in his first game back. Now the Indians look like they might get Tyler Naquin back from the DL. I mentioned earlier how well Naquin was playing.

He had six RBI’s in his last four starts before hitting the DL. He’s no golden savior sent to aid the Tribe offense, but he adds depth for an outfield that needs it. Andrew Miller will also face live batters this weekend hopefully that means we could see Miller return at some point on this nine game home-stand.

Worse/Best Case scenario

Worse case scenario: 1-2 series loss

This series could really go either way, I don’t see the Twins sweeping the Indians, but they could take two of these games depending on how lousy the Tribe offense wants to be. The Twins know how to beat the Tribe despite sitting five games behind them. The Indians need to take advantage of the Twins inconsistent pitching to take this one, while the Twins need to jump on the Tribe’s slumping offense.

Best case scenario: 2-1 series win

I’d like to say the Indians can sweep Minnesota but I don’t think it’ll happen. The Tribe offense isn’t bad by any means but they haven’t played particularly well in the last week. Slumps don’t last forever but from what we saw in April, they can feel like an eternity. With that said, someone should start keeping a record of how close I am on some of these predictions.

Next: 3 takeaways from the 5-2 in Chicacgo

This series kicks off tonight at 7:10 PM EST with another glorious dollar dog night. It continues all weekend.