Cleveland Indians at Baltimore Orioles series preview

After a disappointing 3-5 home stand, the Tribe head back on the road where they are obviously more comfortable. First up on this three city tour is Camden Yards and the Baltimore Orioles.

• Friday. 7:05 PM:  Corey Kluber (R) vs. Wei-Yen Chen (L)
• Saturday. 7:15 PM: Cody Anderson (R) vs. Chris Tillman (R)
• Sunday. 1:35 PM: Trevor Bauer (R) vs. Ubaldo Jimenez (R)

Next Week: This long trip concludes with four games in Tampa and three in Pittsburgh during the holiday weekend.

Division Watch: Royals at A's, Twins at Brewers, White Sox at Tigers.

Team in a Box

As cold as the Orioles were heading into the previous meeting, they are just as hot at the moment. Since winning the series in Progressive, they swept the Red Sox, won a series against the Yankees, took three of four from the Phillies and won series versus both the Blue Jays and Red Sox.

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They are top five in slugging, mainly due to being fourth in home runs. They don't steal bases much but do convert their baserunners into runs pretty well as they are only eighth in OPS but fifth in runs scored. The staff as a whole is top five in preventing runs and that is pretty good because they issue walks at an alarming clip. That is also because they have a very strong defense. They have the fewest errors in the AL.

Projected Roster

Wieters was activated during our last series. The other lineup changes are that Lough and Parmelee have been starting over Jones and Young. Jones is expected back in the lineup during this series. The current roster has six outfielders. One will have to go when Chen is activated today. My best guess is that it will be Young who is jettisoned. He lost his right field spot and is hitless in his last 12 plate appearances.

The offense over the past weeks has been very good. They have a 292/351/498 slash and 20 bombs. Machado and Parmalee are both scorching hot, each with an OPS above 1200 and four and three homers respectively. Machado also has 13 RBI in that span. Only hardy has been struggling with a sub 700 OPS.

During the Cleveland series, it was Jones and Witeres that did most of the damage with a 1462 and 1301 OPS respectively. Hardy really struggled in that series as well with just 2 hits.

Projected Staff

# expected to be activated for Friday's game

Chen hasn't started since June 15 as the orioles have played the option/minors game over the past couple weeks. Over his past five starts he has a 2.87 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 9.5 K/9. He did not pitch in the previous Tribe series. The Indians hit him hard in his sole 2012 start, but he pitched effectively in both of his 2014 starts, 3.95 ERA in 13.2 innings (but two no decisions). Tillman beat Shaun Marcum 5-2 on June 5. Since then he has been fairly horrid, 9.00 ERA in three starts covering just 13 innings, 1.54 WHIP and 4.2 K/9. But he did get two wins. The LGT classic meme, Ubaldo, survived six walks in in six innings on June 6 (won by Danny Salazar), allowing just one run. He has a 4.86 ERA, 1.50 WHIP and 11.9 K/9 in his three subsequent starts but has won all three.

Over the past two weeks, the bullpen has been fantastic. They have a 1.19 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 8.1 K/9. In the past Tribe series, O'Day, Brach and Roe allowed single runs each, but the pen was again great. They had 2.80 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 11.6 K/9. The entire staff didn't allow a single homer and just 7 runs total over the three games.

On the Shelf

• CF Adam Jones [day to day], expected back June 26
• 2B Jonathan Schoop [15 day DL], possible July return
• RP Wesley Wright [60 day DL], possible early June return
• P Jason Garcia [15 day DL], no timetable for return

Almanac

*Does not include 2015 stats

Prediction: I like the pitching matchups in this series. But I have felt that way most of this year too and it hasn't panned out as hoped. I think Kluber outduels Chen, the offense wakes up and beats Tillman and then they struggle against Ubaldo, making it a 2-1 road series victory.