Game 20 open thread: Astros vs. Indians

The Indians and the Houston Astros play the second game of a three-game series at Progressive Field at 6:10 PM tonight. The Astros won the first game on Tuesday, 4-2.

Trevor Bauer will be the starting pitcher for the Tribe. Bauer got smacked around in each of his first two starts this season, but had a decent outing last week in Minnesota, a game won by the Indians, 6-2. Bauer went 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs, both earned. He gave up three hits and walked three batters while striking out seven.

The Astros will counter with Lance McCullers Jr. This will be his fifth start this year, and the Astros have won each of the four games he started. McCullers, a righty, got the win in two of those games, including his most recent start, a home game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The Tribe batters had one heck of a time trying to get a hit off lefty Dallas Keuchel on Tuesday. Here’s hoping they fare better against McCullers. It would be especially nice to see Jason Kipnis and Edwin Encarnacion get a few hits and some RBIs. In his defense, Kipnis nearly homered on Tuesday, but was robbed when Josh Reddick made a perfectly timed leap at the wall in center field. At first it looked like the ball cleared the wall, but Reddick trotted off the field with the ball in his glove.

Missing from today’s lineup are Astros Jose Altuve and Teoscar Hernandez, who collided with one another while trying, unsuccessfully, to field a popup to right field in Tuesday’s game. Altuve will get a day’s rest, while Hernandez, who had just gotten called up to the big leagues before Tuesday’s game, has been replaced on the Astros roster by Tony Kemp.

Here are tonight’s starting lineups: