Cleveland Indians: 2016 World Series rematch against the Cubs on deck

2016 World Series rematch against the Cubs on deck for Cleveland Indians

After a rain out on Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Indians are coming off a rare back-to-back off days before a two-game set against the Chicago Cubs at home. The short series with be the final two games of the homestand before the Tribe head out west for a road trip that will include stops in Seattle and Los Angeles.

For now, attention for the Cleveland Indians will stay on the next two games against the Cubs for a rematch of the 2016 World Series. Since the seven-game series in 2016, the two clubs have met eight times with the Cubs leading the series 5-3 over that span. Chicago has also won the last four meetings, which all took place last season.

For Cleveland, just three players remain from the 2016 squad that nearly captured the organization’s first title since 1948, but only one will suit up for this series without a different uniform between 2016 and now. Roberto Perez was on the roster, but won’t play this series due to injury. Bryan Shaw was also on that team, but played elsewhere in 2018, 2019 and 2020. That leaves just Jose Ramirez as the only player on the roster that will face the Cubs this week that did so in 2016 without a buffer team or two in-between.

In the other dugout there will be a handful of faces that will be the same from 2016, including Kyle Hendricks, Willson Contreras, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Jason Heyward. Additionally, the Cubs manager, David Ross, was actually one of the catchers during the 2016 title run for Chicago.

With the history portion of the series covered, it isn’t all that surprising that the two teams are in much different places now heading into this series then they were in 2016 heading into the biggest series. The Tribe will enter the two-game set against Chicago with an 18-14 record, good for second in AL Central and one game back of the other team that calls Chicago home, the White Sox. The Cubs, on the other hand, are 17-17 and sitting in third place in the NL Central, three-and-a-half games back of the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers.

The Cubs have been able to tally a win in five of their last six games with the loss being their contest on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 6-5 final. Oddly enough, that’s not too much different than how the Cleveland Indians will enter the series. Cleveland has been able to win six of their last seven with the loss being Wade Miley’s no-hitter.

Luckily, the pitching matchups should favor the Tribe, at least in the first game. Cleveland is scheduled to pitch Shane Bieber in the first game of the series to face Adbert Alzolay. While Alzolay has had a decent start to the season with a 4.50 ERA and an impressive 0.89 WHIP, it’ll be tough for him to outpitch the opposition in Bieber who enters as the league’s strikeout leader by a wide margin.

With 77 strikeouts thus far, Bieber is atop the league for the category in addition to a 2.98 ERA and 1.08 WHIP. He’s also averaging 14.3 strikeouts per nine innings, which is somehow better than his record-setting mark from a season ago when he became the first pitcher ever to average over 14 strikeouts per nine innings.

As for the second game of the series, the Cleveland Indians will look to pitch Sam Hentges against Zach Davies for what could be a high-scoring affair. Through seven starts, Davies has an ERA of 6.30 while his WHIP is at 1.83. Now, he has started to get back on track with just one earned run over his last two starts, but it’s been a rough beginning to the season for him.

A similar story could be told for Hentges on the mound for the Tribe. Beginning the year at the alternate site, Hentges started in the bullpen in Cleveland before taking over the starting role when Logan Allen was sent down. Hentges has yet to officially start a game with the Tribe using an “opener” on his days, but on the year he has totaled nine innings with an ERA of 5.00 and a WHIP of 1.78.

While this series will be much different than the 2016 World Series for a variety of reasons, it will still be a fun one to watch. The Tribe have a chance to get out of the gates strong with Bieber on the mound before what could be a run-filled game two to close out the homestand.