Cleveland Indians: Previewing the weekend duel with the A’s

After an interesting weeklong series against the Cardinals, the Cleveland Indians head out west one last time this year to take on the Oakland A’s in another late showdown.

Thing’s were not exactly easy for the Cleveland Indians in the past week. After a seven game win streak, the Tribe dropped two games against the Cardinals. Shane Bieber came in to save the say and allowed the Tribe to avoid a sweep by the RedBirds.

Now the Indians head out to Oakland to face an A’s team that is fighting desperately to stay in the hunt. The Indians struggled on their first west coast trip this year, as the went 2-4 against the Mariners and Angels at the start of the year.

Now the Cleveland Indians head out to face an A’s team that is coming off winning five of six against the Tigers and White Sox and is feeling pretty hot. So It’s similar to the situation the Tribe faced against those same two teams. Something has to give. Here’s how these two teams match up.

Cleveland Indians (44-35) vs Oakland Athletics (44-38)

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

Oakland Athletics: CF Dustin Fowler, LF Matt Joyce, 3B Jed Lowrie, DH Khris Davis, 1B Matt Olson, RF Stephen Piscotty, C Jonathan Lucroy, SS Marcus Semien, 2B Franklin Barreto

The A’s have missed their primary 3B, Matt Chapman for a while now. Chapman has been on the DL since June 15th and hasn’t been able to make it back. As for their hot-hitters; Jed Lowrie has been pretty effective for the A’s in the last week. Lowrie is batting .357 in the last week with two homers and seven RBI’s.

As for the Tribe, Jason Kipnis has been red-hot. Batting .368 in the last week, he’s managed to have an 11 game on-base streak. His electricity has been followed up by Yonder Alonso and Edwin Encarnacion both batting over .300