Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers series preview

Cleveland has won just one series this season, the opening one in Houston. Since then they have split one and lost every other series played. They try to stop that bad string by heading to Detroit to take on the Tigers, who swept the Indians in the home opening series.

• Friday's game is at 7:08 PM (Salazar vs. Greene)
• Saturday's game is at 1:08 PM (Bauer vs. Simon)
• Sunday's game is at 1:08 PM (Carrasco vs. Lobstein)

After finishing this nine game divisional road trip, the Tribe heads home for the final of six straight series against divisional opponents, and our first look at the defending AL champions, the Kansas City Royals. The home stand will begin on Monday and then the Toronto Blue Jays will visit Progressive for four games before the next day off.

Division Watch: Royals at White Sox, Twins at Mariners.

Team in a Box

The Tigers started out red hot, winning their first six against the Royals and Tigers. Since then they have cooled off a bit. The White Sox took two of the three against them at home last weekend, and the Yankees just took three of four at Comerica, including the last three in a row.

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Overall, the offense has been as advertised, but a lot of that was due to the sweep during the Tribe. In their past seven games they are averaging just 3.3 runs and 249/300/380 slash. The pitching has also regressed from the hot start, with a 4.71 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP. Defensively, they have just six errors in this young season.

Joe Nathan popped his UCL in his latest rehab assignment and will have Tommy John surgery, ending his 2015 season after recording just one out. Ian Krol was optioned yesterday and righthanded Alex Wilson takes his place.

Projected Roster

The lineup has produced, especially some of the new additions. Cespedes and Gose both have looked very good. Victor is off to a slow start however. It may be residual from that spring training injury or it could be the start of his inevitable decline. The catching duo hasn't been very good. But J.D. Martinez definitely likes the water in Detroit, as he continues to wield a good stick. And Igelsius hasn't shown any rust from his 2014 injury.

In that first series, the only regulars who did not hit the Tribe pitching staff well, were J.D., Cespedes and the catching duo. The rest torched the staff at a 364/444/542 clip, including five home runs. Let's hope for some regression this series.

Projected Staff

* Stats with AAA Toledo Mud Hens

The scheduling gods are with the Tribe once again as they miss both Price and Sanchez (although Price was clobbered by the Yankees on Wednesday). Hopefully they take advantage of it unlike in Chicago. Greene has been the best pitcher for Detroit so far. He has an unsustainable WHIP and doesn't appear to strike out a lot of guys either. He did beat Cleveland in his only start last year with the Yankees. Simon has also been much better than anticipated. The Tribe has hit him the hardest of his three 2015 starts, 3 runs in 5.1 innings. Lobstein also beat the Tribe in the first series, giving up three runs in five innings, but did allow 11 baserunners.

Soria notched two saves in that first series, but did allow one run. Other than Hardy, the Tigers bullpen did their job. Krol and Alburquerque were the only ones to give up any runs besides Hardy. Wilson spent the last few seasons with the Red Sox and has made just three appearances against the Indians.

On the Shelf

• RP Joe Nathan [15 day DL], out for season
• RP Bruce Rondon [15 day DL], possible late April return
• SP Justin Verlander [15 day DL], possible May return

Almanac

*Does not include 2015 stats

Prediction: With the offense still in a deep freeze, I see the same record as in the previous two, 1-2. They "should" beat Simon, but couldn't do it last time. And who knows what the offense will do against the leftie. Greene has pitched very well, so I think they beat him, just to go against the grain, and then lose the final two.