Cleveland Indians: Previewing the duel with the Kansas City Royals

Probable Pitchers

RHP Corey Kluber (CLE) vs RHP Jakob Junis (KCR)

I will not overreact to Corey Kluber‘s bad start, I will not overreact to Corey Kluber’s bad start, I will not overreact to… sorry. Corey Kluber had one of the worst starts of his dominant career. It was the shortest start of his career with just 1.2 innings allowing six runs on six hits. The hot takes flowed immediately and everyone starts to wonder if Kluber is hurt again. He can silence all of that with a class Kluber outing against a team he’s dominated over the last two years.

Jakob Junis has lost his last six starts and went 0-5 in the month of June. That includes an ERA of 7.14 in June with 10 home runs allowed along with 10 walks. Junis has the luxury of playing on a rebuilding team that doesn’t have much else to replace him with. Unfortunately for him, he’s facing an Indians team that got four runs against him in 5.2 innings.

RHP Shane Bieber (CLE) vs LHP Danny Duffy (KCR)

Shane Bieber has played so well that I used him as the featured picture on this slide in a series where Corey Kluber is one of the starting pitchers. You’ve picked, kid: congrats! Shane Bieber is the new wunderkind in baseball. The 23-year old kid has been a strike throwing machine, and now he’s earned a permanent spot in the Tribe rotation. Since returning from Triple-A after a shaky first start, Bieber is 3-0 with a 0.96 ERA. Not bad.

Danny Duffy has been pretty good as of late. Well, good-by Royals starter standards. Unfortunately he was not  good against the Tribe in his last outing against them. He allowed 9 earned runs in 3.1 innings. The Indians have bullied lefties all season, Duffy was no exception.

RHP Trevor Bauer (CLE) vs RHP Ian Kennedy (KCR)

Trevor Bauer had a tough loss in his last outing. He allowed two runs against the A’s with hardly any run-support. The bullpen promptly collapsed but the loss was sealed for Bauer. Aside from that, he’s been relatively dominant and there’s no reason to not see that continue. You think that Trevor Bauer doesn’t want to win on the 4th of July?

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Don’t laugh; Ian Kennedy hasn’t won a game since April 7th. I said don’t laugh, the last team beat was the Cleveland Indians. If anything else, he’s due. The problem for Kennedy is his ERA has gotten significantly worse since April. He had a 7.09 ERA in may and .503 in June. On top of that, the Royals haven’t won a game that he’s started since May 4th against the Tigers.