Cleveland Indians vs. Detroit Tigers series preview

On the heels of yet another losing weekend series at home, the Tribe now welcome the division rival who has won 53 of the past 83 matchups between these two, including seven of nine this year, the Detroit Tigers.

• Monday 7:10 PM: Kyle Ryan (L) vs. Trevor Bauer (R)
• Tuesday 7:10 PM: David Price (L) vs. Danny Salazar (R)
• Wednesday 12:10 PM: Justin Verlander (R) vs. Carlos Carrasco (R)

Since taking two of three from the Tribe just a short week ago, the Tigers lost two of three to both the Reds and Yankees. They sit in 3rd place, only a game above .500.

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

Coming up: After a day off on Thursday, the Tribe head out on one of the longer road trips of the season. A three-game set in Baltimore this weekend, followed by four in Tampa Bay and three in Pittsburgh over the Fourth of July weekend.

Team in a Box

Not has much changed since last these two teams met. The numbers are pretty similar to where they were a week ago. The bad news is that the Tigers offense loves to feast on Tribe pitching. The good news is that after this series, the Indians will play them only seven more times the rest of the way with both series taking place in September.

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Projected Roster

The major tweak to the lineup since a week ago was the activation  of Victor from the DL and the demotion of the hot hitting Tyler Collins. Miggy has been scorching hot lately. In his past two weeks, he has a robust 486/578/784 slash with 13 driven in. And if Miggy has been hot, J.D. Martinez has been supernova hot, with a 366/409/854 slash, 15 driven in and six bombs.

As a team, the Tiger offense has put a hurting on the Indian pitching staff this season. They have a team 322/293/481 line and 11 homers in those 9 games so far. Miggy continues to feast on our staff to the tune of a video game number-esque 647/690/1147 slash with five over the fence. I sure hope Francona walks him as often as he can.

Projected Staff

Most of the changes to the pitching staff occurred during the last Tribe series. Verlander was activated and reliever Angel Nesbitt was sent down. And Ian Krol was activated which sent Shane Greene back down.

The first matchup of this series will be the only new one. Ryan did not pitch in the last series, but was moved into the rotation during the Reds series. He lost that start surrendering four runs in 6.1 innings on three Red blasts over the fence. Price pitched a gem in beating Salazar last time out. He scattered seven hits and struck out eight in his shutout on just 93 pitches. I hate it when we give the opposition a Maddux. He only pitched five innings to the Reds in his next start. Verlander was on a strict pitch count in his 2015 MLB debut against the Tribe last time out. He was alright over five innings. But the Yankees scorched him for six runs on three homers in 6.2 innings on Friday night.

On the Shelf

• C Alex Avila [15 day DL], possible early July return, on rehab
• SP Kyle Lobstein [15 day DL], possible late June return
• RP Joe Nathan [15 day DL], out for season

Almanac

*Does not include 2015 stats

Prediction: I almost want to call a sweep in this series, for the Tigers, as Cleveland has played pitiful against them these past three years (14-33).  And with two lefties going in the first two, I think they could have another home series loss already decided before they beat Verlander on Wednesday.