Cleveland Indians-New York Yankees Series Preview

Cleveland Indians-New York Yankees Series Preview 7/7-7/10

The first place Cleveland Indians (51-33) welcome the New York Yankees (41-42) to town for a four-game series to close out the first half of the season. The Indians enter the series coming off their first home loss in over a month but maintaining a 6.5 game lead in the American League Central Division. The Yankees, meanwhile, are coming off a series loss to the Chicago White Sox and are in fourth place in the American League East.

The pitching probables for the series are:

"Thursday (7/7): RHP Ivan Nova (5-5, 5.06 ERA) vs RHP Trevor Bauer (7-2, 3.02)Friday (7/8): RHP Chad Green (1-1, 4.09) vs RHP Corey Kluber (8-8, 3.79)Saturday (7/9): LHP CC Sabathia (5-6, 3.48) vs RHP Danny Salazar (10-3, 2.36)Sunday (7/10): RHP Masahiro Tanaka (6-2, 3.12) vs RHP Carlos Carrasco (5-2, 2.47)"

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Trevor Bauer will be making his first start since coming out of the bullpen in the Tribe’s 19-inning marathon in Toronto back on July 1st. He picked up the win in relief, going five scoreless innings. Corey Kluber will look to show why he deserves to be on the All-Star team. He currently owns the lowest FIP in the American League (2.96) and has the second highest fWAR behind only Chicago’s

Jose Quintana

(3.1). Danny Salazar will be making his first start since being named an American League All-Star. He owns the lowest ERA in the American League at 2.36 and has a case to start the All-Star game for the American League. Carlos Carrasco will get the ball in the first half finale as he continues to show that if not for the injury he may very well have been an All-Star as well with his 2.47 ERA.

The Yankees will start a pair of young righties in Ivan Nova and Chad Green in the first two games of the series. Former Indians star and 2007 American League Cy Young winner CC Sabathia will get the call on Saturday. Sabathia struggled his last time out but is having a great bounceback season for the Yankees. All-Star snub Mashiro Tanaka will get the ball in the finale. Tanaka owns the 3rd best FIP and fWAR in the American League (3.24 and 3.0, respectively).

The Indians will look to get more consistency out of the offense after some extreme hot-and-cold bouts the last week that has seen them score double-digit runs one game and nearly shutout the next. Francisco Lindor looks to cap off his All-Star first half with a strong weekend performance. He enters the series batting .299 with a robust .355 OBP. Rookie Tyler Naquin will also look to cap an outstanding first half and continue his hot play since being recalled for the suspended Marlon Byrd. Naquin is batting .320 with a team-best .961 OPS on the season, but since his return at the beginning of June, he has a ludicrous 1.115 OPS.

The Yankees will be led by 2016 All-Star Carlos Beltran who, despite being 39 years old, is batting .297 with a .899 OPS on the season. The Yankees will also show off their All-Star bullpen in this series with left-hander Andrew Miller and right-hander Dellin Betances. Then, of course, there’s fireballing left-hander Aroldis Chapman who probably would have been an All-Star had he not been suspended at the start of the year for domestic abuse charges. Needless to say, if the Indians want to score they better do it early this series…

Next: Salazar and Lindor Named All-Stars

For more on this series and some Indians and Yankees banter, be sure to check out the Yankees’ FanSided site Yankees Go Yard as our own Zach Gewelb was on the Yanks Go Yard Radio Show with host Ricky Keeler last night. They discussed this series and several other topics related to the Indians and Yankees.

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