With a win on Thursday, the Cleveland Indians have swept the Los Angeles Angels and have now won 27 of their last 28 games. The Tribe are the first team to accomplish that feat since Providence Grays in 1884. They have a chance to match the Gray’s mark of 28-1 on Friday and top it throughout the weekend series against the Seattle Mariners. Cleveland is the hottest team in baseball right, but everyone must lose sometime. When will it end?
This series will be contested from Friday, September 22, 2017 through Sunday, September 24, 2017 at Safeco Field in Seattle. For those outside of the local television markets, Friday night’s game will be shown on MLB Network.
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Pitching Matchups
As if the road ahead wasn’t rough enough for the Mariners facing a team with a better 28-game stretch than anyone since 1884, they’ll also have to go against the team’s top-3 starters, each with at least 16 wins.
The series starts out with Trevor Bauer on the mound. Bauer is 16-9 with a 4.41 ERA and 1.402 WHIP for the Indians. With Carlos Carrasco scheduled for Saturday and Corey Kluber on the docket for Sunday, Bauer is the best chance for Seattle.
Bauer was the pitcher that took the only loss within the team’s last 28 games. That was his first loss since July 16.
The right-hander had been red-hot until allowing four runs against the Royals. Even still, he’s been ace-like in the second half, going 9-2 with a 3.31 ERA.
Bauer—like the other Indians starters—is a strikeout arm. He’s striking out 10.1 per nine innings. Carrasco is at 10 per nine with Kluber at 11.8 per nine.
Speaking of the other two arms, Carrasco comes into action at 16-6 with a 3.48 ERA and 1.097 WHIP. He’s thrown 186 innings in his 30 starts. He gives quantity and quality.
He allowed four runs in his last start, much like Bauer, but he got the win. He’s 6-1 in his last eight games. The team is 7-1 in that span. Prior to his latest game, he had allowed two total runs in his prior four starts, spanning 29 innings.
The dominating numbers continue into Sunday for Cleveland’s hurlers. Kluber, of course, is a Cy Young contender and may have passed Chris Sale for the lead there. He’s 17-4 with a 2.35 ERA and 0.850 WHIP. He leads the Indians in innings with 191.2 despite missing nearly a month. He’s the league leader in most major categories including wins, winning percentage, ERA, complete games, shutouts, ERA+, WHIP, and strikeout-to-walk ratio.
It’s been 22 innings since Kluber allowed a run. He’s also allowed two or fewer in seven straight games and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a game since July 29 when he allowed four runs to the White Sox. Aside from that game, he hadn’t allowed more than three runs since May 2.
Countering all of these dominating Indians’ pitchers are three much less inspiring Mariner arms including Erasmo Ramirez, Andrew Moore and Mike Leake.
Ramirez and Leake were both midseason acquisitions as Seattle tried to plug the holes from all the rotation injuries suffered.
Ramirez is 1-2 with a 3.54 ERA in his last seven starts since rejoining the Mariners. He was relieving for the Rays before the trade and has settled into the start role in Seattle well, though the wins and losses don’t reflect that. He’s also coming off a bad start against Houston, allowing six runs in four frames.
As for Leake, he’s been amazing since his trade. He wore out his welcome in St. Louis and was struggling bad when traded. A change of scenery certainly did him well. He’s made four starts and has a 2.13 ERA and 11:1 strikeout to walk ratio. That’s a stark improvement from his dismal August.
As for Moore, the rookie right-hander was a midseason call up and was bad. He was yet another effort to try and fix a broken rotation. He went back to the minors and got the nod again here in September. This time, he’s looked good pitching to a 3.24 ERA in 16.2 September innings.
The sample sizes are small, but we have—save a bad Ramirez start—three pitchers throwing well trying for at least one upset against much more established Indian arms.
Who's Hot?
Every Indian has been red hot over the last month. Certain players stand out more than others.
Cleveland has gotten 11 homers and 27 RBIs from Francisco Lindor in his last 28 games. He’s hitting .339 with a .422 OBP as well. The All-Star has shown amazing pop over the last month and continues to deliver big hit after big hit.
To accompany Lindor, both Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Ramirez have nine homers over the last 30 calendar days.
Ramirez has been the hottest player of all. He’s batting .395 with a 1.320 OPS in his last 22 games. He’s delivered 22 extra base hits, driven in 17 and has even stole a few bags.
Other notable hot bats include Carlos Santana and Roberto Perez. The catcher got hot with the stick in last year’s postseason. Is he positioning himself for the same situation this year? He’s 17-for-50 with five homers in his last 17 games.
On the other side of the field, Mitch Haniger has been as hot in September as he was when he took the sport by storm in April. He was less impressive in the middle months, but is batting .368 with a 1.037 OPS in his 18 September games. He’s slugged five homers and put up 10 extra base hits.
Mike Zunino is also swinging well. He’s got a .353/.431/.667 slash line in September. He’s struck out more than any other Mariner in the month, too, but when he is putting the ball in play, he’s hitting it hard.
Who's Not?
In general, it’s hard to find a player that struggling for the Indians right now. Jason Kipnis has been troublesome all year. The second baseman is now getting time in the outfield after losing his everyday role.
Kipnis has just come back off the DL and hasn’t looked much better than he did before his latest injury.
Lonnie Chisenhall is another Indian player whose bat is quiet. He, too, recently came off the DL and has yet to knock all the rust off.
Out of the bullpen, Joe Smith may be the only unreliable arm. He has allowed seven runs in his last 11 games, going only 8.1 innings and giving up 13 runs.
The list of struggling players is longer for Seattle. Mark Rzepczynski and Nick Vincent haven’t been much relief out of the pen.
Yonder Alonso is batting .214 in September with Danny Valencia even worse, giving the Mariners a clear lack of answers at first base right now.
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