The Indians meet the Twins for the second consecutive weekend, although the standings have flipped since last Friday’s series opener. The Indians were two games behind Central-leading Minnesota last Friday night, but their 8-1 victory that night kick-started a resounding four game sweep in the Twin Cities. The Tribe outscored the Twins 28-8 over the four games.
Now that we’re officially past the summer solstice, the Indians have finally attained first place in a division that nearly every national pundit handed them back in Spring Training. The Indians (39-32) are heating up at almost the exact same time as last summer’s epic win streak and have won eight of their last nine. The Twins (36-34) are still clinging to .500, but their pitching staff has the fourth-worst ERA in all of baseball (5.03) while they also rank 21st in runs scored.
Trevor Bauer makes his 15th start of the season and while he has not impressed with his surface stats this season (6-5, 5.54 ERA, 1.43 WHIP), he has struck out a full two batters per nine innings more than any other full season in his career while keeping his walks at 3.6 BB/9, slightly under his career average of 3.8 BB/9.
Bauer’s last start against, which happened to be against the Twins last Sunday in the series finale, was also his best work of the season: two runs on four hits and two walks with eight K’s over seven innings. His ERA is 4.08 in June and 4.10 over his last eight starts.
Opposing the Indians will be a man who just turned 24 on June 20th, Adelberto Mejia. The left-hander makes his tenth start of the season (and his career) and has struggled so far, posting a 5.53 ERA with a 1.60 WHIP while logging one victory back on May 21st against Kansas City.
The Twins do have the second-best road record in baseball at 20-9, but they’ve also allowed an ugly 5.9 runs per game as their thin starting pitching seems to have begun their slow regression to the bottom.
Line-ups below and first pitch at a muggy Progressive Field is scheduled for 7:10pm ET.
