Cleveland Indians: Previewing the rematch with the Oakland A’s

After a sweep of the lowly Kansas City Royals, the Cleveland Indians finally return home from their long trip to see a team they just faced on said trip.

Isn’t it fun when we get to do this? Thanks to more fun schedule miscues, the Cleveland Indians will face each other for the second time in a week span. Fortunately this time around we get some different pitching matchups.

With their last expedition out west, the Indians played their last games on the west coast, so you can stop worrying about those 10 PM start times. The lineups are relatively the same with the exception of an injured Lonnie Chisenhall hitting the DL once again. Greg Allen will get more MLB playing time in his stead. Let’s hop right into the pitching matchups.

Probable pitchers

RHP Paul Blackburn (OAK) vs RHP Carlos Carrasco (CLE)

Paul Blackburn turned his performance around against the Indians last weekend. He worked 6.1 shutout innings and got the win. This time he’ll be facing a healthy Carlos Carrasco. Carrasco makes his return from the DL after spending a few weeks hurt. Carrasco took a line drive to the elbow on June 16th, something that always seems to plague his MLB career.

Now Carrasco will make his return, entering this game with a 4.24 ERA. He had struggled of late and wasn’t very effective in the game where he was injured. But let’s hope Carrasco can turn things around after a quick DL stint.

RHP Edwin Jackson (OAK) vs RHP Corey Kluber (CLE)

Edwin Jackson was another winner for the A’s last weekend. He pitched 6.2 innings to get the win after the Indians offense faltered yet again. Now the Indians get a second chance at the veteran pitcher. He will face off against Corey Kluber.

Kluber had a few rough starts in his last four games. Fortunately; after every bad start, he rebounded with a victory. He beat the Royals in his last outing and while it wasn’t his most effective, it was enough for the win.

RHP Frankie Montas (OAK) vs RHP Shane Bieber (CLE)

Frankie Montas was the lone A’s pitcher to get roughed up against the Indians. He allowed nine hits and three runs in his 5.2 innings of work .He now gets to face the scorching hot Indians offense that just badly beat up on his bullpen and the Royals pitching staff.

He’ll face the wunderkind Shane Bieber who got off to a rough start against the Royals but wound up settling in to get the win over Kansas City. He is now 4-0 on the year and while his ERA has gone up, he’s shown that he can stay cool under pressure and settle in.

Storylines

The MLB schedule is stupid sometimes

This is the third time this year that the Indians play a team on back to back weekends and the second time that team is from outside their division. The first time was against the Houston Astros. That would seem like a fun matchup to market and spread out over time. Instead we get the same pitching matchups two times around. This happens two more times this year. Against the Twins and White Sox. I know it happens a lot but it doesn’t make much sense to me.

It’s Melk time?

The Indians re-signed Melky Cabrera to a minor league deal with Triple-A. He will play with Columbus until called upon. It’s an interesting signing and makes us wonder about the severity of Bradley Zimmer and Lonnie Chisenhall’s injuries. We will see if Melky Cabrera makes another MLB appearance for the Tribe.

Worse/Best case scenario

Worse case: 0-3 series loss

We’re approaching a part of the schedule where the Indians can start to lose more games. This A’s team is very good, they’ll follow this up with a series against the hot Reds, and then play the Yankees back home. The Indians need to come out of this series with at least one win and hopefully two. But that’s easier said.

Best case: 2-1 series win

This A’s team is a resilient bunch and they won’t let the Tribe pick on them. They sit close in the AL standings but the A’s play in a much tougher division. Still the Indians are capable of taking this series to stay on course to be hot going into the break.

Next: Nothing wrong with Bauer's ASG comments

The series kicks off tonight at 7:10 PM EST and will continue through the weekend afternoons until Sunday.