Game 25 Open Thread: Indians @ Royals

As they continue to show improvement after a rough start, the Tribe will look to gain some significant ground in the standings this week with  a combined (7) games against Central Division foes Kansas City and Minnesota. It all kicks off Tuesday night at 8:05pm EST with a huge 4-game series on the road against the Royals. The Tribe may get a spark from the fiery Nick Swisher, who returns to the club to make his 2015 debut after an extended rehab in Triple A with the Columbus Clippers. Brohio will be looking to improve upon a difficult, injury-plagued 2014 where he swung a paltry .208 with just 8 homeruns in 97 games.

The switch-hitting Swisher did hit .375 during his rehab in Columbus and has been deemed healthy and ready to go. With the early season struggles of the Tribe lineup, he can expect to be reinserted in the lineup immediately (batting 6th as DH Tuesday night) and see a lot of at bats. With an albatross contract and a lot to prove after his first two years in Cleveland, Tito and the gang will hope that Swish can regain the form that earned him the 4-year/$56 Million contract he signed two years ago, with large expectations from Indians fans and front office alike.

Danny Salazar (3-0, 3.32) toes the rubber for the Wahoos and he’ll square off against southpaw Jason Vargas (2-1, 5.95). Despite kicking off the season in Triple A, Salazar is tied for the team lead in wins (3) with Carlos Carrasco. The young flamethrower has pitched well, with an eye popping 28 strikeouts—against just 5 walks—in only 19 innings pitched. While the Indians love that strikeout/walk ratio, Salazar’s roughest start came just last week at Progressive Field, where Kansas City tallied 4 runs in just 6 innings. While Hosmer got to him for a 2-run HR, Salazar struck out 7 and did not walk a batter and still earned the win.

KC will counter with the lefty Vargas, who lasted just five innings against the Tribe in his start last week due to five walks and a very high pitch count. Nonetheless, Vargas got the win last week and will look to continue the Indians’ early season struggles versus southpaws.

Cleveland Indians versus LHP in 2015 in 331 at bats:

.245 BA .328 OBP 7 HR 42 BB 63 K

The individual breakdowns for regulars versus LHP look even worse:

Jose Ramirez: .043     Jason Kipnis: .133      Michael Bourn: .189

At what point in the season do we stop saying, “It’s still early” and start to see some changes, especially against left-handed pitching?  It looks like the answer to that question is: “right now”.

Tito Francona is really mixing things up!  Here are your lineups: