Cleveland Indians: Three keys to victory against the New York Yankees

Three keys to victory for the Cleveland Indians against the New York Yankees

After having a snow day on Wednesday, the Cleveland Indians saw their two-game series with the Chicago White Sox trimmed even shorter. With that game being rescheduled for a double-header on May 31st, the Tribe will now turn their attention to the New York Yankees for the next four games at Progressive Field.

The Yankees will enter in the midst of a slow start to the season, standing at just 6-11, including having lost six of their last seven contests with four of those losses being at home. Now, they begin an eight-game road trip, starting with four in Cleveland before another four in Baltimore.

A few familiar faces will also return to Cleveland for the series with Gio Urshela, Clint Frazier and Corey Kluber all being on the Yankees’ roster. Although, Frazier never cracked the big leagues in Cleveland and with Kluber pitching on Wednesday, the odds of him facing the Tribe for the first time in his career are slim-to-none.

As for the Cleveland Indians, they enter the series on the back of a roller coaster start that has them sitting at exactly .500 with an 8-8 record. That’s still enough to be tied with the White Sox for second in the American League Central and just 1.5 back of the Kansas City Royals, but capturing a quartet of wins by way of sweep over a struggling New York team could be huge.

The Tribe have won consecutive games just once this year, being a four-game win streak that included sweeping the Detroit Tigers, so asking for a sweep might be a lot. Maybe we just aim for back-to-back wins to start.

While other factors will obviously play a role in the series against the Yankees, focusing on these three things should give the Tribe the upper hand over the next four games. These might not guarantee a win for Cleveland, but they would go a long way in increasing the odds of victory.