The Indians hope to right a listing ship tonight when they welcome the Detroit Tigers for a three game series at Progressive Field.

The Indians have lost five of their last six games this season after an opening series sweep in Arlington and currently stand at 4-5, two games behind division leading Detroit and Minnesota.

In 2016, the Indians propelled themselves to a Central Division title largely on the strength of their success against their Motown rivals. They went 14-4 overall against Detroit and won 13 of their first 14 games against the Tigers to help bury the runner-up in the Central.

Taking the hill tonight for the Tribe and making his second start of the season will be right-hander Trevor Bauer. This will be Bauer’s tenth career start against the Tigers and he struggled with this matchup last season in three games (two starts), allowing 11 runs in 14.2 innings (6.75 ERA) along with a 1.50 WHIP (5 walks, 17 hits allowed).

Bauer showed good velocity on his fastball in his season debut (93.5 mph) en route to 11 strikeouts without a walk, but was touched for four runs on seven hits in 5.2 innings (6.35 ERA).

Opposing Bauer will be one of the more unique individuals in Major League Baseball. Daniel Norris (0-0, 4.26), who spends the offseason living in his Volkwagen camper van and is already a cancer survivor at the age of 23, is also one of the young pitchers the Tigers have pinned their hopes on for coming seasons.

Norris averages less than five innings per start for his career (28 starts) but pitched into the 7th in his 2017 debut, a no decision against Boston. He started twice against the Indians last season, lasting only seven total innings in a win and an injury-shortened no decision.

Norris throws four pitches starting with a 93 mph fastball 50% of the time and mixing in a slider (21%) along with a change-up (19%) and a curveball (10%).

Game time is 7:10pm and it looks to be a beautiful night for baseball in Cleveland.

Line-ups below:

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