Cleveland Indians: Previewing the series against the Angels

Probable Pitchers

RHP Jaime Berria (LAA) vs. RHP Mike Clevinger (CLE)

Jaime Berria has had himself quite a rookie season. He came in near the end of April and hasn’t worked deep in games. But he hasn’t worked very deep into games. He’s only gone beyond six innings one time since making his debut, but in his short outings he isn’t allowing many walks or too many runs for that matter. Berria has a 3.74 ERA but this may be a tough challenge for him with the Indians loaded lineup.

Mike Clevinger hasn’t been struggling mightily, but he had the worst month of his season in July. The fact that a 4.85 ERA qualifies for his worst month of the year shows what we’ve come to expect from Clevinger. He can be a consistent pitcher when he has control, but that’s been something Clevinger has lacked.

That lack of command has caused Clevinger to allow runs early on in outings. That combined with the Indians lack of run-support for him has caused the Indians to drop his last four starts.

RHP Felix Pena (LAA) vs. Corey Kluber (CLE)

Felix Pena made his first start for the Angels back in June. Before that he was used primarily out of the bullpen in previous years. He hasn’t been very good as he has just one win in seven starts with a horrible start in his last outing. On Sunday he was roughed up for seven runs while recording just one out.

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As for Corey Kluber, he looked like his old self against the Tigers in his last outing. Kluber had been a bit shaky for a few weeks but an 7.1 inning start allowing just one run is what we’ve come to expect from Kluber. He will be facing the Angels for the second time this year but thankfully, he won’t have to see Shohei Ohtani.

LHP Tyler Skaggs (LAA) vs. RHP Shane Bieber (CLE)

If Pena’s outing was bad, Skaggs last outing was atrocious. He allowed over 3.1 innings against the Rays. Despite that, it’s actually Skaggs’ best season in his career. He has his lowest ERA and has already shattered his previous best in strikeouts with 118 this year.

Shane Bieber on the other hand is having himself a bit of a lull. By lull, I mean he needs to mix up his pitches a bit, as teams are quickly catching on to the accuracy of his fastball. It’s cause Bieber’s Era to go up by two runs in just five outings. He allowed three runs in his last game where the Indians would eventually lose to Minnesota in walk-off fashion.