Cleveland Indians: Previewing the road series against the St. Louis Cardinals

The Cleveland Indians enjoyed a 7-2 nine-game home-stand to cap off last week. Now they start a new road trip by heading to the gateway to the West to face the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cleveland Indians couldn’t have asked for a better home-stand last week. After it got off to a slow start, the Tribe answered by winnings seven straight; sweeping the White Sox and Tigers. During the Tribe’s win streak, they’ve outscored the opposition 54-9. The offense is white-hot , and the pitching is just as good. Things seem to be falling into place for the Cleveland kids.

Now the Indians hit the road to face a team that they haven’t seen since 2015. Inter-league play is always fun in that sense. The Cardinals are coming off a 3-4 road trip and are 4.5 games back of the Brewers and right behind their rivals the Cubs.

This will be just the 24th, 25th, and 26th meeting between the two clubs. The Indians lead the all-time series 15-8. Here’s how these teams stack up for this inter-league showdown.

Projected Lineups

Cleveland Indians (43-33) vs St. Louis Cardinals (40-36)

Cleveland Indians: SS Francisco Lindor, LF Michael Brantley, 3B Jose Ramirez, 1B Edwin Encarnacion, RF Lonnie Chisenhall, 2B Jason Kipnis, CF Tyler Naquin, C Yan Gomes, Indians SP

St. Louis Cardinals: 3B Matt Carpenter, CF Tommy Pham, 1B Jose Martinez, LF Marcell Ozuna, C Yadier Molina, RF Dexter Fowler, SS Paul DeJong, 2B Kolten Wong, Cardinals SP

Ah, the National League. I just love seeing Cy Young winner Corey Kluber lineup at the plate. He uses the same cold stare that he uses on the mound, but the stare is not as effective when you’re a terrible hitter.

Since we don’t have the DH this week, expect to see Edwin Encarnacion playing a majority of the 1B reps, while Yonder Alonso get’s to rest up.

As for the Redbirds, Tommy Pham is actually day-to-day with a flu bug, so we may not be seeing him in the first game or two. The month of June has been kind to Marcell Ozuna, who is batting .342 with seven homers this month. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, practically everyone in the Tribe lineup is batting over .300 in the last week.