Series Preview: Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox
Hey we know these guys
Not a great trip out west. The Indians managed to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Oakland Athletics, but this weekend still featured some of the most frustrating baseball to date. So, with that out of their system, hopefully these last two games before returning home will be better. We can only hope.
The White Sox are the same team that the Indians just faced. Three games apart didn’t change anything significantly. Chicago’s run differential is a bit better, but that’s about it. This was helped by taking 2 out of 3 against the Blue Jays, a series in which they outscored Toronto 15-7.
Projected starters
Monday, May 13 8:10 p.m. ET: RHP Reynaldo López (v. Shane Bieber)
The last time these two starters faced each other, it was last Wednesday. Both made it through at least six innings and both gave up three earned runs. The game ended with a Jose Ramirez walk-off dinger, so that was cool. The Indians won’t be able to walk this one off, so the Tribe will need to get ahead earlier if they want to win. López was in trouble all game, but the Indians went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position, so despite López allowing 9 hits and a walk, the Tribe could never land the knockout blow. Maybe today will be different.
Tuesday, May 14 2:10 p.m. ET: LHP Manny Bañuelos (v. Carlos Carrasco)
This is also a repeat of a match-up last week. Bañuelos had struggled all season coming into Thursday’s game, and he continued that trend against the Tribe. On May 9 at Progressive Field, Bañuelos went 4.1 innings and allowed 5 earned runs on 8 hits while walking 5 and striking out 5. We’ll see if he’s learned anything in the week since his last start.
Lineup highlights
It’s still James McCann, Jose Abreu, and Tim Anderson. Again, three games away from the Indians didn’t drastically alter the lineup. But one hitter I didn’t feature last time who deserves to be mentioned is:
- 3B Yoan Moncada: Yoan Moncada has (so far) taken a big step forward after his first full-time season in 2018. So far in 2019, across 171 plate appearances, Moncada is slashing .277/.339/.484 (wRC+ 122). He’s still striking out a ton (26.9%), but he’s striking out much less than he’s done up to this point in his career (32.6%). And his BABIP is right around his career mark (.350 v. .344), so it’s not like he’s fluking his way into results. The two main areas of improvement are the reduction in strikeouts and the power stroke; his ISO has jumped up 40 points when compared to 2018.