Cleveland Indians: Previewing the series against the Yankees

RHP Luis Severino (NYY) vs RHP Corey Kluber (CLE)

Man, we have some really great pitching matchups for this series. It kicks off with a bang. Luis Severino has emerged as a true Cy Young award contender. He has a 2.12 ERA and the most wins in baseball with 14. Severino is 2-1 in his career against the Tribe. He’s allowing just 0.58 HR/9 innings, good for fifth in baseball. Something has to give against a hard-hitting Indians lineup.

Corey Kluber has had one major weakness this year. He’s allowed 17 home runs this year, something you don’t expect to see from Kluber. The Yankees hit more homers than anyone, so don’t be too shocked if he gives up one or two. Kluber does have a 1.43 ERA at home this year along with a 0.80 WHIP. He could dominate tonight, but it won’t be easy.

RHP Domingo German (NYY) vs RHP Shane Bieber (CLE)

How do you follow-up a battle of two aces? Put two young studs on the mound in their rookie seasons. Domingo German made his first Major League start against the Tribe back in May. He was downright impressive. German pitched six shutout innings with nine strikeouts in that game. His ERA has shot up to 5.06 since that impressive start, but he settled in nicely allowing just one run in his last start.

Shane Bieber took his first loss in his last outing. The A’s rocked the youngster for four runs in six innings. While the runs came early and he did settle in, it was too little too late for Bieber. He can rebound to his dominant ways against the Yankees. A win here would solidify Bieber’s place in the hearts of Tribe fans.

LHP CC Sabathia (NYY) vs RHP Mike Clevinger (CLE)

The veteran takes on the young second year stud in the third meeting of this series. Still love ya, CC but this is a lefty-killing Tribe lineup. He did pitch beautifully against Cleveland In his last start against them, but the Indians are .270 as a team against lefties. CC has a rough whip of 2.00 and a 4.42 ERA on the road.

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Mike Clevinger and CC Sabathia have the same ERA at 3.34. Clevinger has himself a lot more strikeouts though, at 110. This has been a big improvement for Clevinger from last year. The problem is, he still struggles with command at times. His fastball has been great but if he can’t locate it, he’s in for some long nights as we saw in his last outing against Oakland.

RHP Masahiro Tanaka (NYY) vs RHP Trevor Bauer (CLE)

This appears to be the only lopsided matchup. That’s purely because of how dang dominant Trevor Bauer has been this year. Masahiro Tanaka still has seven wins on the season, but this he was plagued by injury thanks to inter-league play. He made his first start since the injury on Tuesday and allowed three runs in 4.1 innings. Needless to say, he’ll look to improve on that.

Trevor Bauer won his last game by pitching 8.0 shutout innings with 12 strikeouts an….. whats that? He didn’t win? That doesn’t make any sense they were up 4-0 in the ninth. What do you mean they lost? Who’s Joey Votto? What’s an OP? Trevor Bauer is gonna want some revenge after that one.