Cleveland Indians at Chicago White Sox series preview

With the Tigers and Royals off to fast starts, this opening divisional road trip is critical to the Tribe to stay close in contention. The Indians and Sox split a short two game series in Progressive last week.

• Monday's game is at 8:10 PM (Carrasco vs. Danks)
• Tuesday's game is at 8:10 PM (Bauer vs. Noesi)
• Wednesday's game is at 2:10 PM (Kluber vs. Samardzija)

After Jose Quintana outdueled the Tribe bullpen after Carrasco exited for line drive off his cheek last Tuesday, Trevor Bauer beat John Danks in the finale on Wednesday. The White Sox then went to Detroit and lost two of three to the Tigers over the weekend.  After a day off on Thursday, the Tribe concludes this road trip with their initial foray into Tiger territory.

Division Watch: Yankees at Tigers, Twins at Royals.

Team in a Box

After a disappointing visit to the Twin Cities, the Tribe is almost to the point that they must win both this series and next so they can at least stay in sight of the Tigers and Royals.

The Sox haven't been good offensively (gee that sounds familiar), their pitching has not been good save Chris Sale, and the defense has played poorly. And what do you know, they have the same poor record as the Indians.

Projected Roster

Jose Abreu is doing his thing already, crushing three homers already, including one of Nick hagadone, and driving in seven. In his brief career, he has a 278/342/583 slash and six bombs. Free agent signee LaRoche is off to a very good start, as are Garcia and flowers. But the rest of the lineup resembles the Cleveland hitters. Not good, poor and just putrid.

Projected Staff

The scheduling gods are with the Tribe in this series as they miss out on both Sale and Quintana. Danks has lost both 2015 starts, giving up four runs in each. The Tribe chased before the end of the fifth last time out. In his career he is 5-12 with a 5.19 ERA in 23 starts against Cleveland. That includes a 1.428 WHIP and 6.4 K/9. Noesi lost his lone 2015 start, also not finishing the fifth, walking six. He is 1-1 with 4.23 ERA in 4 starts (5 appearances) against the Tribe, 1.265 WHIP and 6.5 K/9. After two rough starts against the Royals and Twins, Samardzija had a great outing versus the Tigers last time out, one earned run in eight innings. He has yet to face Cleveland in his career.

It is still much too early to read into any of the bullpen numbers, but Robertson looks like he did with the Yankees. Interestingly enough, two former Indians reside here as well, Putnam and Albers.

On the Shelf

• RP Jake Petricka [15 day DL], on AAA rehab assignment.
• RP Nate Jones [60 day DL], possible midseason return

Almanac

*Does not include 2015 stats

Prediction: All three pitching matchups favor the Indians in this series. But I have no idea how Carrasco will respond to the liner off the noggin. And with how poorly the lineup has fared, I even hesitate to call a series win. But Bauer and Kluber both have looked good so far, so I will stick with a 2-1 series win.