Cleveland Sports Forum

Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Dodgers series preview, pitching matchups
Updated June 13, 2017


CLEVELAND, Ohio – Here’s a look at the series between the Dodgers and Indians that starts Tuesday night.

Where: Progressive Field, Tuesday through Thursday.

TV/radio: SportsTime Ohio, WTAM/1100 and WMMS/FM 100.7 will carry the series.

Pitching matchups: LHP Clayton Kershaw (8-2, 2.20) vs. RHP Trevor Bauer (5-5, 6.10) Tuesday at 7:10 p.m.; RHP Brandon McCarthy (5-3, 3.28) vs. RHP Corey Kluber (5-2, 4.38) Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. and LHP Rich Hill (3-2, 3.77) vs. Josh Tomlin (3-8, 5.73) Thursday at 12:10 p.m.

Series: The Indians and Dodgers have not played since 2014 and the Dodgers haven’t played at Progressive Field since 2003. The Dodgers lead overall, 5-4.

Player to watch: Clayton Kershaw

Kershaw, the three-time Cy Young winner, will be making his first appearance at Progressive Field. He’s made one regular season appearance against the Indians, a five-inning no decision on June 20, 2008 in a 6-4 Tribe victory. This year Kershaw is 4-0 in his last seven starts and is coming off a 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals.



Player to watch: Cody Bellinger

The rookie outfielder-first baseman didn’t make the opening day roster, but is still leading the Dodgers with 15 homers and 35 RBI. Bellinger, 21, was a fourth round pick in 2013 and made his big league debut on April 25. He tuned up for the Indians by hitting three homers with four RBI on Saturday and Sunday against Cincinnati.
Player to watch: Edwin Encarnacion

As the weather has warmed, so has Encarnacion. The Tribe’s DH is hitting .279 (34-for-122) with seven homers and 12 RBI since the May 1. Encarnacion, as of May 20, was hitting just .199 (29-for-146). Manager Terry Francona dropped Encarnacion from the cleanup spot to the fifth spot on May 15, but could he move him back to No.4 if he continues to hit?

Player to watch: Cody Allen

Allen saved his 15th game in 16 chances on Sunday afternoon. He’s converted 29 of 30 save opportunities, including the postseason, since Aug. 18. Allen was knocked around a bit in May, allowing five earned runs in 10 2/3 innings, but still went 8-for-9 in save chances. Right-handers are hitting .271 (13-for-48) and lefties .255 (13-for-51) against Allen. The opposition is hitting .138 (13-for-51) against him with runners in scoring position



Team updates: The Indians (31-29) took two out of three games from the White Sox over the weekend, but they’ve lost five of their last eight games. They are 1-6 in interleague play. The Dodgers (39-25) are coming off a three-game sweep of the Reds and have won four straight. Tuesday night will be their first interleague game of the season and mark the start of a six-game all-Ohio trip in which they play the Indians and Reds.

Who's hurt, who's next

Injuries: Dodgers – OF Andrew Ethier (back), RHP Yimi Garcia (right elbow), LHP Scott Kazmir (left hip), CF Joc Pederson (neck strain, concussion), RHP Sergio Romo (left ankle), 1B Rob Segedin (right big toe), RHP Brock Stewart (right shoulder) and LF Andrew Toles (right knee) are on the disabled list.

Indians – RHP Danny Salazar (right shoulder), OF Brandon Guyer (left wrist), RHP Cody Anderson (right elbow) and OF Abraham Almonte (right biceps) are on the disabled list.

Next: The Indians open an eight-game trip with a four-game weekend series against the Twins at Target Field starting Friday night.

Francona on Salazar's setback:
https://youtu.be/_zthsE0_EOM

Francona left game in eighth inning because of illness.

Did Dodgers OF Yasiel Puig flip the middle finger to Tribe fans after a second-inning home run? Yep


By Joe Noga, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig homered in the top of the second inning Tuesday off Cleveland Indians starter Trevor Bauer and appeared to direct an obscene gesture toward fans seated in the nearby dugout suites after he rounded the bases.

Puig, who has a history of questionable behavior for the Dodgers, homered to right center field off Bauer to give his team a 2-0 lead. The 398-foot blast was Puig's 10th of the season.

After completing his trot around the bases, Puig appeared to look into the dugout suites and gesture with both middle fingers toward fans seated near the Dodgers dugout.

During Puig's next at-bat in the fourth inning, Bauer delivered a two-strike fastball up and in at Puig, causing the LA slugger to step out of the batter's box. He grounded into a fielder's choice at third base on the next pitch.

Kipnis scratched because of stiff neck. Zimmer moves from No.9 to No.1 spot. Eric Gonzalez replaces Kipnis at 2B, batting 9th.

Start of Wednesday night's game between Dodgers and Indians has been delayed by rain. No start time has been announced.

How is it possible that a guy that's barely batting over .200 be hitting cleanup?

Miller gives up another homer!
What, is he taking lessons from Tomlin?

Then he walks the next batter!
He and Lindor better get their sh!t together! I guess they are spoiled by all the good press they got last season?

Another walk!

Now they can't even turn a routine double play. Gonzalez doesn't come close to tagging 2b!

It's a new year! Cubs and Indians really sucking it up.

Indians giving a new meaning to Murphy's Law.

Broken bat single scores 2 more!
Two nights in a row the bullpen has wasted a great start! I am VERY upset with this team!!!!

Maybe it's time to trade away some of these overpaid non-performers for some prospects that WANT to play??

Certainly is painful to watch. From what I'm seeing so far this year, It seems highly unlikely that this team as constituted will qualify for the playoffs. A turning point in this season will be the Twins series. It's almost necessary to sweep that series and I think that will be highly unlikely.