Cleveland Indians: Previewing a late night series in Seattle

The Cleveland Indians picked a bad time to be slumping because now they’re slumping and playing games at 10 PM against the explosive Mariners.

Well if you enjoyed watching the Cleveland Indians poop the bed in Kansas City, you’ll certainly love when they have to travel to Seattle to face the home run hitting Mariners who also happen to be one of the hottest teams in baseball.

Lackluster performances all around let to the Tribe underwhelming in their outing against Kansas City. The starting pitching that has been so critical for the Indians was a disaster, and the offense floundered for two of the games against the Royals.

So what are the Indians to do? Well, they won’t have to use a Triple-A pitcher for some time (although he was the best starter the Indians had all weekend). They also have Jason Kipnis and Carlos Gonzalez returning full time to the lineup.

Cleveland Indians (8-7): CF Leonys Martin, 3B Jose Ramirez, LF Jake Bauers, 1B Carlos Santana, DH Hanley Ramirez, 2B Jason Kipnis, RF Carlos Gonzalez, C Roberto Perez, SS Eric Stamets

Seattle Mariners (13-5): CF Mitch Haniger, LF Domingo Santana, DH Dan Vogelbach, 1B Edwin Encarnacion, RF Jay Bruce, SS Tim Beckham, C Omar Narvaez, 2B Dee Gordon, 3B Dylan Moore

Well, the names in the Indians lineup are starting to become more recognizable. I suppose that’s a start. The offense still has some pretty lackluster hitters. Hanley Ramirez isn’t as hot as he was, Tyler Naquin who started to heat up looks like he will be a platoon player now. It’s a bit of a mess, but we’re about a week away from the return of Francisco Lindor so there’s that.

As for the Mariners, if you recognize some of these power hitters, it’s because of the fact that they played for the Tribe. Encarnacion, Bruce, and basically everyone in the Mariners lineup is red-hot right now. That could spell trouble for Cleveland.