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

Storylines

Everyone in the Indians lineup is hot and teams should be very afraid.

I already mentioned how well the Indians are playing baseball right now. But how good? Well, Francisco Lindor has found his groove, he hit a homer in three straight games. He’s batting .400 in the last week and just four strikeouts.

Edwin Encarnacion and Jason Kipnis both are trending upward. For Edwin, he has four XBH’s in the last week and had a grand slam in yesterday’s outing. The slump looks to be over for Kipnis, who is batting .381 in the last week with three homers and a double.

Then there’s Jose Ramirez. Yesterday I talked about his chances to be AL MVP and he further proved that point during the game. He hit his 23rd home-run, tying the MLB lead and he has the fourth best .OPS in baseball.

Worse/Best case scenario

Worse case: 1-2 series loss

Interleague play has been kind to the Tribe this year. They are 3-1 in NL parks and 6-2 against the NL overall. But this is the start of a long trip out west for the Tribe, Their last road trip was less-than-ideal. The same can happen hear against a higher level of competition than they’ve faced in the last week.

Best case: 3-0 series sweep

They say that it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them. Boy, the Cardinals couldn’t have picked a worse time to face the Tribe. The Cardinals are slumping in the division and have a lot of pitchers on the DL. Good pitching is what the Cardinals need against this Indians lineup, and their pitchers are not playing their best baseball right now, the Indians pitchers are.

Next: 3 takeaways from the blowout win over Detroit

This series kicks off tonight at 8:10 PM EST and continues through that time slot all week. The Indians than head out to Oakland for some late night games this weekend. Party time!