It took two different attempts in 2016 to finally play the home opener.
Baseball is finally returning to Progressive Field, as Carlos Carrasco will take the mound for the Indians at 4 p.m.*** on Tuesday, while James Shields will start for the White Sox. (***barring any type of weather-related delay) As I wrote last year, the Indians haven’t had the best luck with home openers. They tend to have miserable weather, be a miserable game, or some combo of both. This is the 22nd time that the Indians have played the White Sox in their home opener; the last time was in 2011 when Chicago won 15-10. That was the game where the White Sox jumped all over Roberto Hernandez (the artist formerly known as Fausto Carmona) and had a 14-0 lead by the end of the fourth inning. The Indians mounted a comeback against Mark Buehrle and the Chicago bullpen starting in the bottom of the sixth, but this was a day where 10 runs just wasn’t enough to win.
I’m a little uncertain what to expect from tomorrow’s game. The Indians hit James Shields well after he joined the White Sox last year, but he managed to shut them down and held them to just one run in September. He also had a strong outing against the Tigers last week, allowing just 1 ER on 2 hits in 5.1 IP. While I normally would have a lot of faith in Carrasco, I’m still a bit worried about his rough spring. Not that those stats matter, but with the elbow issues and some of the command issues I saw, I’m still concerned that he could get knocked around.
My other concern is the offense – the Indians really struggled to score runs this past weekend, particularly with runners in scoring position. Hopefully they can improve upon that now that they’re returning to the friendly confines of Progressive Field.
Lineups:
Indians | White Sox | ||
DH
|
Carlos Santana |
2B
|
Tyler Saladino |
SS
|
Francisco Lindor |
SS
|
Tim Anderson |
LF
|
Michael Brantley |
LF
|
Melky Cabrera |
1B
|
Edwin Encarnacion |
1B
|
Jose Abreu |
2B
|
Jose Ramirez |
3B
|
Todd Frazier |
3B
|
Yandy Diaz |
DH
|
Cody Asche |
CF
|
Tyler Naquin |
RF
|
Avisail Garcia |
C
|
Yan Gomes |
C
|
Geovany Soto |
RF
|
Abraham Almonte |
CF
|
Jacob May |
SP
|
Carlos Carrasco |
SP
|
James Shields |
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