The Cleveland Indians play their penultimate road game of the season, as they take on the Detroit Tigers on Saturday evening. The Indians end the season with seven games at home, four against the first-place Chicago White Sox and three against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, as they try to clinch one of the two wildcard spots in the American League. The Tigers are nearly eliminated from the postseason race, as they have lost 12 of their 17 games.
The Indians have won the first two games in the series, including a 1-0 shutout on Friday night. The lone run of the night was scored on a Francisco Lindor sacrifice fly in the fifth inning. Zach Plesac pitched into the eighth inning for Cleveland and Brad Hand pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the save. Victor Reyes had a pair of hits for Detroit in the loss.
Indians look to move closer to playoff berth
The Cleveland Indians have to be thankful that the 2020 season was shortened to 60 games. On September 7, the Indians beat the Kansas City Royals in the first game of a four-game series to improve to 26-15. Since that time, Cleveland has been in a freefall. They lost eight games in a row before finally getting get back in the win column with a win in the opening game of the Detroit series on Thursday. While they still aren’t in imminent danger of missing the playoffs, the Indians need to turn it around in a hurry if they want to make a deep run in the postseason.
Cleveland has won mostly with their pitching this season. They are number one in runs given up per nine innings, as well as the top five in opponents batting average, opponents OPS, and strikeouts. Shane Bieber has been the best starting pitcher in baseball this season, and their closer, Brad Hand, is second in the majors in saves with 13. Plesac lowered his ERA to 1.85 with his performance on Friday.
“His tempo's much better. His command is much better," interim manager Sandy Alomar Jr. said of Plesac on espn.com. "Kind of simplified his mechanics. Last year was a little bit of a struggle with the way he set his glove -- I felt like he was tipping his pitches."
Offensively, they are near the bottom of the league in every major category. They have hit just 49 home runs this season, led by Jose Ramirez, who has 13 home runs and 32 RBI. Franmil Reyes leads the Indians in batting this season, with a .279 batting average. He is batting .317 on the road, while seven of his eight home runs have come away from Cleveland.
Triston McKenzie goes to the mound on Saturday for the Indians. He is 2-1 this season with a 3.91 ERA and a 0.79 WHIP. The rookie right-hander is making his sixth start of the season. McKenzie was roughed up a bit in his last turn by the Minnesota Twins. He suffered his first loss of the season on Sunday after giving up five runs on three hits (all home runs) and one walk. McKenzie made his Major League debut against the Tigers on August 22, giving up one run on two hits in six innings for the win. He has given up just 14 hits in 25.1 innings, but six of those hits have been home runs.
Tigers looking to play spoiler
With just seven games remaining on their schedule after Saturday night’s game, the Detroit Tigers have the chance to try to ruin the seasons of a couple of playoff contenders. After their series with the Indians, they play a two-game set with second-place Minnesota on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Tigers have not played well recently, especially their pitching staff. They have given up at least 10 runs in four of their last 10 games, including shutouts of 19-0 and 14-0. They have been shutout in four of their last 10 games after Friday’s 1-0 loss.
“(Michael) Fulmer did great," manager Ron Gardenhire said on espn.com about his starting pitching, who pitched three scoreless innings. "That's the best three innings that he's had."
Jeimer Candelario has been having an excellent season this year, leading the team in batting average at .318, while hitting seven home runs and driving in 28 runs. Jonathan Schoop tops the Tigers with eight home runs, but is on the IL and hasn’t played since September 12. Detroit has hit 57 home runs this season. The Tigers pitching has been awful this season. They are giving up over six runs per game this season, while teams are batting .270 with an OPS of over .800.
Spencer Turnbull gets the start for Detroit on Saturday. He is 4-3 with a 3.94 ERA this season in nine starts, but he is 3-1 with a 2.01 ERA at home. He gave up five runs on eight hits in five innings against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday. Turnbull has faced the Indians on eight occasions in his short career (seven times as a starter). He has not pitched well versus Cleveland, but his won/loss record is probably worse than it should be. He is 0-6 with a 5.55 ERA, but in his seven starts against Cleveland, the Tigers have scored a total of five runs in those games, and have been shut out three times.
Notable Trends
Trends found on oddsshark.com:
- The Tigers are 1-6 in their last seven games overall
- The tigers are 1-4 in their last five games at home
- The Indians are 18-2 in their last 20 games versus Detroit
- The Indians are 10-0 in their last 10 road games versus Detroit
