Cleveland Indians: Previewing the series against the Minnesota Twins

Storylines

Offense in a flux.

Would you believe me if I told you the Indians best hitters in the last week have been Melky Cabrera, Yonder Alonso, and Yan Gomes? What If I told you is batting .600(!!!) in the last week. Meanwhile the Indians MVP candidate Jose Ramirez has a .136 batting average in that span while slugging .182.

Francisco Lindor is right in front of him with a whopping .179 BA. The Indians are a victim to the long season just like everyone else. It’s better to get these slumps out of the way in August than to see them surface in October. For the Indians the hope is that’s what the case is. Just a slump for two incredible players.

Worse/Best case scenario

Worse case: 1-2 series loss

Can’t take any chances on this one. Last week I jinxed the team saying the Royals were bad and the Indians were good blah, blah, blah. Baseball is a crazy sport. Right when you think you’re comfortable, it sneaks up on you and sends you in a frenzy. Just look at the Red Sox being swept by the Rays. So don’t expect anything at this point. The Twins have had the Indians’ number this year. A series loss here would give the Indians a fitting losing record against Minnesota

Best case: 3-0 series win

Okay, I guess I’m taking a bit of a chance here. But If the Indians want to catch the Astros for that second seed, they need to go after it while taking care of teams that they’re better than. That includes the Twins who are a shell of their former selves.

This series kicks off tonight at 7:10 PM EST and continues on the usual slate with a 1:10 series finale on Thursday. A sweep in this series will put the Indians 16 games up on the Twins. Let’s hope for that.