We are in the home stretch at this point – just three series (and three extra innings) remain in this season. Tonight the Indians start their final away series of the regular season as they take on the Twins in Minneapolis. Trevor Bauer will take the mound against Phil Hughes.
The Indians have always had problems with Hughes. In his career, he has a 2.37 ERA against the Tribe over 38 IP and they’ve batted .221/.270/.336 against him. When you look at just the 2014 numbers, it gets even worse – they’ve hit .192/.192/.308 against him in 7 IP, while Hughes has a 1.29 ERA against the Indians. After watching this anemic offense in Houston earlier this week, this doesn’t exactly fill me with a lot of confidence.
Bauer has struggled with one bad inning in a lot of his recent starts, but had a decent outing against the Tigers last Sunday, allowing just 1 ER on 6 hits in 5 IP. The last time Bauer saw the Twins (on August 19) they jumped on him for 5 ER in the first inning. After that bad start, he managed to shut them down as the Indians chipped away at the lead to win 7-5.
Can I rant for a minute? There are a lot of things that have been irritating me lately when it comes to the Indians…part because they’ve been annoying, and part because I’ve been sleep deprived and cranky. But the one thing I just haven’t been able to wrap my head around is why J.B. Shuck is still getting at-bats when you’re still technically in a pennant race. In 16 at-bats this season, he’s yet to even reach base. No hits, no walks, no reached on an error. I get that the Indians want to see what they’ve got, and I would maybe agree with that if they were already officially eliminated from the postseason. But to waste valuable at-bats on Shuck, who hit .167/.195/.250 in 84 at-bats with the Angels before he was released, just seems silly to me. You’re hoping against hope he returns to 2013 form, but I’m not holding my breath. I’d rather see Tyler Holt almost any day of the week, if it comes down to Holt and Shuck. Okay, I’ve vented and will now get off of my soap box.
Lineups:
Indians:
Michael Bourn, CF
Jose Ramirez, SS
Michael Brantley, DH
Carlos Santana, 1B
David Murphy, RF
Lonnie Chisenhall, 3B
Mike Aviles, 2B
J.B. Shuck, LF
Robert Perez, C
Twins:
Danny Santana, SS
Brian Dozier, 2B
Joe Mauer, 1B
Kennys Vargas, DH
Trevor Plouffe, 3B
Kurt Suzuki, C
Oswaldo Arcia, RF
Aaron Hicks, SS
Jordan Schafer, LF
Seriously believe we can steal this from the Royals! LETS GO!