The Cleveland Indians (43-33) are heading to St. Louis (40-36) for a 3-game Interleague series against the Cardinals starting Monday night. The Indians will look to stay hot, coming off back to back series sweeps against both the White Sox and Tigers. St. Louis comes into the series after taking 2 of 3 from the National League Central leading Brewers this past weekend.
Pitching Match-Ups
Mike Clevinger (6-2, 3.00 ERA) vs John Grant (1-2, 4.69 ERA) – Monday June 25th, 8:15 EST
Mike Clevinger, who was originally scheduled to pitch Sunday afternoon against the Tigers returns to the mound Monday night. Francona gave Clevinger an additional day of rest allowing Adam Plutko to take the hill Sunday. Clevinger, who has been great in 2018 has the advantage as no Cardinals player has ever faced him before.
John Grant comes into Monday only having 3 starts this year and just 12 in his career. In 2018 he’s averaging over a strikeout per inning but most of his work has come from the bullpen. Grant tends to keep the ball in the ballpark with a just a 0.3 HR/9 in 2018. If the Cardinals get 5 innings from Grant they’ll be happy.
Corey Kluber (11-3, 2.10 ERA) vs Carlos Martinez (3-4, 3.24 ERA) – Tuesday June 26th, 8:15 EST
Kluber, who’s tied for the league lead in wins and is second in the American League in ERA takes the bump for Game 2 of the Interleague match-up. It’s easy to remember that in 2015 Kluber mowed down 18 Cardinals hitters in just 8 innings of work. Cleveland is hoping to have a repeat performance on Tuesday.
Martinez has electric stuff but has struggled with his control this season. He has the highest BB/9 and WHIP rate of his entire career while allowing the lowest opponent batting average. If he can prevent the free passes it could be a long night for the Tribes offense.
Shane Bieber (2-0, 2.45 ERA) vs Jack Flaherty (3-2, 2.50 ERA) – Wednesday June 27th, 8:15 EST
Shane Bieber, who struggled some in his first couple starts in the majors was dominant against the struggling Tigers offense. Bieber fired 7 scoreless innings yielding only 4 hits and striking out 9. He’ll look to continue his success against the Cardinals on Wednesday.
Flaherty who’s just 22 years old is coming off a 7 inning performance in which he allowed a single hit (solo HR) and 2 walks. In the month of June he has 23.1IP and a 2.31 ERA. Opponents are slugging only .325 in 2018 against Flaherty.
Offenses
Cleveland’s offense comes in hot having scored 38 runs in their last 4 games. However, this offense has been completely different on the road all of 2018 with a team batting average of just .226 and averaging under 4 runs per game. Losing the DH this series won’t help matters either.
The Cardinals have scored 18 runs in their last 5 contests with an 8 run outburst on Sunday afternoon. As a team they’re batting .240 with 97 home runs in 2018.
Other Notes:
Both Andrew Miller and Carlos Carrasco will travel with the team on their upcoming road trip. Miller is set to resume throwing on Monday after being hampered by a knee injury that dates back to 2017. Carrasco should begin throwing sometime this week after being struck in the elbow with a line drive. Luckily both the X-ray and MRI revealed no serious damage to his pitching elbow.
Lonnie Chisenhall was scratched from Wednesday’s game against the White Sox with calf tightness but returned to the lineup Friday night.