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.

Probable pitchers

RHP Mike Clevinger (CLE) vs RHP John Gant (STL)

Mike Clevinger‘s sophomore campaign continues to impress. Clevinger absolutely dominated in his last outing against the White Sox. After allowing a run in the first, Clev rolled along. He struck out 10 hitters and walked just two. That is huge for Mike Clevinger, as walks have been his Achilles heel. If he continues to keep that number low, the best may be yet to come this year for the young pitcher.

John Gant has struggled to get things going in 2018. The youngster has an ERA of 4.39 and has not fared well against the AL. He has a 6.75 ERA against American League teams. He faced the Tribe once in relief back in 2016 as a member of the Braves. This is just Gant’s fourth start for the Cardinals, as he has been used as a bullpen arm. But due to the injury to Michael Wacha, Gant get’s another shot.

RHP Corey Kluber (CLE) vs RHP Carlos Martinez (STL)

What a beauty we have in store with this matchup. Corey Kluber came back with a vengeance after he slipped up against the Twins. The poor White Sox faced Kluber’s wrath as he pitched seven shutout innings allowing just one hit and striking out seven. Needless to say, if Kluber slumps; it doesn’t last long.

Corey Kluber has faced these Cardinals once before. Back in 2015 he had perhaps one of the best outings of his career. Kluber pitched eight shutout innings against the Redbirds and tossed 18, yes eighteen strikeouts against the Cards.

Don’t let the numbers fool you, Carlos Martinez is a pretty good pitcher. He got off to a hot start in 2018. He had an ERA of 0.54 in the month of April. Then May came along and he struggled against a pair of AL teams before missing the remainder of the month.

Since his return to the Cardinals rotation in June, his ERA shot up to 8.10 and he hasn’t made it beyond five innings. Needless to say, it’s been a tale of two seasons for Carlos. It’ll be tough to rebound against a white-hot Tribe lineup.

RHP Shane Bieber (CLE) vs RHP Jack Flaherty (STL)

Since Shane Bieber was called up to the big-leagues last month, I haven’t stopped talking about him. I’ve got Bieber fever and theres a good reason for it. In his last two starts, Bieber has a 0.71 ERA with 16 strikeouts and only two walks. Now he gets a shot at inter-league play. After Adam Pluto had a great outing yesterday, Bieber will have to keep up his good work to keep the Indians positive trend of young pitchers moving.

Jack Flaherty takes the mound for the Cardinals in the series finale. He has the lowest ERA of all of the Cardinals pitchers that Cleveland will see with 2.50. His numbers don’t jump off the page at you, but he gives the Cardinals innings and consistency. He doesn’t walk much nor does he allow too many hits. He could give Bieber a good run for his money in the young pitcher’s fourth start.

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!