The Indians welcome the Mike Trout-less Angels to town for a three-game series this weekend, beginning tonight with Mike Clevinger taking the hill for the Tribe.
Trout is dealing with a wrist injury which will keep him out of Friday’s game, but he hopes to return Saturday.
Without Trout, the Angels lineup is… less than terrifying. In fact, it’s so bad that they’re batting the corpse of Albert Pujols in the cleanup slot, despite an OPS lower than Yan Gomes.
Even Shohei Ohtani, who looked like a legitimate MVP candidate very early in the year, is struggling. Since the All-Star Break, Ohtani is batting .171 with a .209 on-base percentage.
Here are tonight’s lineups:
| Angels | Indians | ||
|
RF
|
Kole Calhoun |
SS
|
Francisco Lindor |
|
LF
|
Justin Upton |
LF
|
Michael Brantley |
|
DH
|
Shohei Ohtani |
3B
|
Jose Ramirez |
|
1B
|
Albert Pujols |
DH
|
Edwin Encarnacion |
|
SS
|
Andrelton Simmons |
1B
|
Yonder Alonso |
|
2B
|
David Fletcher |
RF
|
Melky Cabrera |
|
C
|
Francisco Arcia |
2B
|
Jason Kipnis |
|
3B
|
Kaleb Cowart |
C
|
Yan Gomes |
|
CF
|
Eric Young Jr. |
CF
|
Leonys Martin |
|
SP
|
Jaime Barria |
SP
|
Mike Clevinger |