Cleveland Indians: Series against Houston Astros may be October preview

The Cleveland Indians begin a three-game series against the Houston Astros tonight in what could serve as a preview of what is to come in October.

It may only be April, but the Houston Astros are already shaping up to be the main competition to the Cleveland Indians in the quest for another trip to the World Series.

The Astros enter today with a record of 13-6, winners in 10 of their last 13 games.

The Indians aren’t doing too bad either, entering the day with a record of 10-8 after a 5-1 road trip.

The series won’t have a true playoff feel to it because of how early it is in the season, but it will serve as a good measure of how the Indians stack up against the Astros for a potential postseason meeting.

The biggest test will come tonight when Dallas Keuchel takes the mound for the Astros. He has started four games this season, going exactly seven innings in each start and allowing a total of three runs for an impressive ERA of 0.96.

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Josh Tomlin is starting for the Indians, which is another reason a playoff feel may not be attached to this game.

Tomlin did do well in his last start, going six innings and allowing three runs in a win, but his first two starts were so bad it is tough to tell if he has turned it around or just had one good day.

The same goes for Trevor Bauer, who gets the start tomorrow night. Fans were excited with his last outing, but a great game against a dominant team like the Astros would show that it wasn’t a fluke.

The pitching is important, but fans will likely be fixated on how the offense performs against the Astros. The Indians were rolling for the first five games of last week’s road trip, but stalled on Sunday, putting up two runs in an ugly game.

Tomlin and Bauer are expected to give up a few runs when they start, so the offense must be able to overcome the great pitching of Keuchel and Lance McCullers Jr., who is 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA, to prove that the Indians can take on any foe and remain favorites to come out of the American League.

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The bright spot of the series is that Jason Kipnis will play in his first home game this season, perhaps bringing some magic to the place where the Indians are currently 2-4 on the year.