Cleveland Indians Welcome the Lowly Minnesota Twins For A Four Game Series

Wow. What a weekend. It all started with the Cleveland Indians coming back in the seventh inning to beat the Oakland Athletics, and only got crazier. The Tribe then beat the A’s 6-3 on Saturday in a game that had some emotions flare. Then the rumors came swirling late Saturday night that the Indians had traded for Jonathan Lucroy, and then eight hours later it was announced that the Yankees were trading lefty reliever Andrew Miller to the Indians for a package that including Clint Frazier. Then Lucroy waived his no-trade clause towards Cleveland, so the Indians walked away without the All-Star catcher. They also played a game on Sunday, a game in which they destroyed the Oakland A’s 8-0 to complete a three-game sweep.

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The Indians now welcome the lowly Minnesota Twins to Progressive Field for the start of a four-game series. The Indians are currently 8-6 since the all-star break, and riding the momentum from the aforementioned sweep of the A’s. The Twins are currently 8-8 since the all-star break and just took two out of three from the Chicago White Sox, raising their overall record to 40-64. This has not been the season that the Twins envision, as they are currently in last place in the American League Central, and have the second-worst record in baseball. They have been playing better as of late, as they went 15-11 in July, which was the first month in which they posted a winning record.

One of the reasons that the Twins have been mired in struggles this year is because of their pitching. The Twins pitching staff currently has a 4.82 ERA, which places them with the third-worst team ERA in all of baseball, ahead of only the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Cincinnati Reds . One of the main reasons for the Twins ballooning ERA is their starting rotation. It’s been a mishmash of aging veterans and unpolished young players, and overall has been a detriment to their overall success. The Twins will start the series off with young stud Jose Berrios (1-1, 10.20 ERA.) Berrios is currently ranked as the Twins best prospect by MLBpipline.com, and will look to build on his AAA success, where he has gone 10-5 with a 2.44 ERA.

Berrios made his major league debut on April 27th against the Indians, a game in which he went 4 1/3 innings and gave up five runs in a losing effort. This will be Berrios first MLB start since May 16th. The Twins will send out Kyle Gibson (3-6, 4.54 ERA) – who has been on of their best starters of late – for game two. Gibson went 2-1 in July with a 3.69 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 31 2/3 innings. Gibson’s only loss in July was on July 17th at the hand of the Indians, a game in which he gave up four runs in six innings.

Next up for the Twins will be Ricky Nolasco (4-8, 5.13 ERA) who is coming off of his best start of the season (8 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO.) Nolasco has by and large been a disappointment for the twins over the past three years as his numbers with the Twins (15-22, 5.44 ERA) are pedestrian at best.

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Nolasco has made two starts against the Indians this year, totaling a 5.40 ERA and 12 strikeouts over 13 1/3 innings. The Twins will close the series out with Tommy Milone (3-3, 5.13 ERA.) Milone was another Twins pitcher who threw the ball well in July, finishing with a record of 3-1 and an ERA of 3.99, though he has struggled in his last two starts going 0-1 with a 7.20 ERA and 4 Home Runs given up over his last two starts. Milone made one start against Cleveland this season on April 25th. He went 4 2/3 innings and gave up two runs.

The Twins bullpen has had some success this year, but the Twins relievers have mostly been used in lopsided games due to short outings by the starters. The Twins have had some players come into their own in their bullpen this year, such as Brandon Kintzler (2.14 ERA, 8 saves in 34 games,) Fernando Abad (1-4, 2.65 ERA,) Taylor Rogers ( 3-0, 2.70 ERA,) and Ryan Pressly (5-5, 3.67 ERA.) Outside of them, they don’t really have much by way of their ‘pen.

The Twins offense actually isn’t as bad as their record would lead people to believe, as their team average of .251 places them at 16th in the MLB, which is middle of the pack. The bad news for the Twins offense is that their best hitter in 2016 (Eduardo Nunez) is no longer on the team. Nunez batted .296 with 12 home runs, 47 RBI, and 27 stolen bases in 91 games for the Twins, and was the Twins representative in the 2016 all-star game. Nunez was traded to the San Fransisco Giants on June 29th for pitching prospect Adalberto Mejia. The rest of the Twins offense is not really anything to write home about. Joe Mauer is still playing for the Twins and playing decently (.261, 3 HR, 33 RBI.) Brian Dozier is the Twins biggest power threat (19 HR and 54 RBI,) Dozier is hitting .281 in 32 at-bats against the Indians in 2016. The Twins lineup will also have a big hole in the middle of it, as power hitting 3B Trevor Plouffe (7 HR and 27 RBI in 58 games) is currently on the 15-day disabled list.

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One of the positives that the Twins have been able to draw this year is that they have been able to assess some of their young players, starting with Kennys Vargas, Byron Buxton, and Miguel Sano. Vargas has been playing well since being called up at the end of June, as he is batting .333 with 4 HR and 10 RBI in 18 games, and even though it is a small sample size, it seems like the Vargas is starting to come into his own in his year three season. Byron Buxton is quite the enigma. Buxton had been on the Twins top prospects over the past couple years, and has gotten ample opportunities to prove himself at the big-league level over the past two years, and he’s been underwhelming for the most part.

Buxton is batting .203 in 107 MLB games over the past two years and is batting .199 in 2016. Buxton has proved that he can change the game in the field and on the base paths, but it would be surprising to see him in either of those places against the Indians, as he is currently listed as day-to-day with a sore right knee. Miguel Sano is currently looking like the Twin with the most upside right now. Sano made his debut last year and showed that he could mash (18 HR in 80 games) but that strikeouts were a serious problem (119 strikeouts in 80 games.) Plouffe’s injury has really opened up third base to Sano, and the Twins are seeing more of the same from the young slugger. The power is clearly there (15 HR in 73 games) but the strikeouts are still a huge problem (110 in 73 games.)

The Indians starters will look to feast on the Twins piecemeal offense, as Indians pitchers have made opposing batters swing and miss 872 times. The Tribe will send out Danny Salazar (11-3, 2.97 ERA) to start Monday, Carlos Carrasco (7-4, 2.45) for Tuesday, Trevor Bauer (7-4, 3.64 ERA) for Wednesday, and Josh Tomlin (11-3, 3.43 ERA) will close the series out on Thursday. Look to see how Tito uses new acquisition Andrew Miller (6-1, 1.39 ERA in 44 games for the Yankees.) Cody Allen (2-4, 2.58 ERA, 20 saves) has already said that he would be willing to move out of the closers role if need be. No matter what Francona decides, the Indians back of the bullpen just got a little bit scarier.

The Indians offense is riding some momentum from the A’s series, as the tribe got some big hits from Abraham Almonte (.438 average over past seven games), Jason Kipnis (.344 average in July), and Tyler Naquin (.335, 12 HR, 32 RBI) continued hitting in the A’s series, which only makes his rookie of the year case stronger. The Indians also flexed their muscles a little bit against the Athletics, and they were punctuated by two of the Indians biggest power threats Carlos Santana (22 HR) and Mike Napoli (24 HR). Napoli and Santana have been fighting for the team lead in home runs all year, so look for their power to be a big key against the Twins.

Next: Indians Made a Good Decision with Andrew Miller Trade

It is now August, and the Indians are still in first place. The margin that they lead by has shrunk a little, making each game is an important game. Games against sub .500 teams in August are games that you need to win to get into the playoffs, so this should be a big series for the Cleveland Indians.

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