Cleveland Indians at Tampa Bay Rays series preview

The ghastly occurrence of a doubleheader shutout on Sunday has the Tribe reeling on this road trip. They now get to face the first place Rays for four games at Tropicana Field. I have a feeling Tampa Bay's strong pitching staff will not be the solution for this team's woeful performance on offense.

• Monday 7:10 PM: Cody Anderson (R) vs. Nate Karns (R)
• Tuesday 7:10 PM: Danny Salazar (R) vs. Erasmo Ramirez (R)
• Wednesday 7:10 PM: Carlos Carrasco (R) vs. Alex Colome (R)
• Thursday 12:10 PM: Corey Kluber (R) vs. Matt Moore (L)

Since taking two of three in Progressive, the Rays have lost both series after returning home. The Blue Jays took two of three from them, as did the Red Sox.

Division Watch: Royals at Astros, Twins at Reds, Pirates at Tigers, White Sox at Cardinals.

Coming up: The Indians finish up this three-city trip in Pittsburgh for the holiday weekend. They will then host both the Astros and A's leading up to the All-Star break.

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Team in a Box

With the Tribe being swept by the Orioles over the weekend, the Rays have now slipped into a first place tie with them. As before, this team is winning via pitching and very little hitting.

Projected Roster

# includes stas with Angels; ## includes stats with Phillies

The only changes on the hitting side were the demotion of Nick Franklin after the acquisition of Marc Krauss from the Angels for minor league pitcher Kyle Winkler and the activation of LGFT Grady Sizemore over the weekend. As a team, the Rays hit 250/318/417 in the series at Progressive. That included four homers by Butler, Droobs, Souza and Longoria. But they didn't need to be much better as the Tribe offense managed just three runs of their own. Forsythe (1129 OPS) and Butler (1017 OPS) were the toughest outs.

Projected Staff

* A roster move will need to be done to activate Matt Moore on Thursday

Karns beat Carlos Carrasco 4-1 in the last series, allowing six hits, one hit and four strikeouts in 5.1 innings. He took a no decision against the Blue Jays, but pitched six innings of shutout ball. Ramirez had pitched three scoreless innings against Corey Kluber, but had to leave with a strained groin. He did miss his next start on June 26. Colome dueled Cody Anderson and pitched seven strong innings, allowing just one hit, two walks and striking out four. The Red Sox scored three off of him in his subsequent start. Fun fact about Colome, the Rays have lost his last seven starts. Moore has been on the shelf since April of last year when he had Tommy John surgery. He has a 3.78 ERA in four career Tribe starts, 1.32 WHIP and 8.1 K/9.

The one change in the pen is that Kirby Yates was activated from the DL and Enny Romero was sent down. The Indians scored two of their three runs in the previous series on the bullpen, but the Rays bullpen was very effective nonetheless. They had a 1.58 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and 9.5 K/9 spanning 11.1 innings.

On the Shelf

• SP Matt Moore [60 day DL], expected to start July 2
• CF Desmond Jennings [60 day DL], no timetable for return
• 1B James Loney [15 day DL], no timetable for return
• SP Alex Cobb [60 day DL], out for season
• C John Jaso [60 day DL], possible July return, on A rehab
• SP Jake Odorizzi [15 day DL], possible early July return
• SP Drew Smyly [60 day DL], possible late July return
• P Jeff Beliveau [60 day DL], no timetable for return
• RP Andrew Bellatti [15 day DL], no timetable for return
• P Burch Smith [60 day DL], out for season

Almanac

*Does not include 2015 stats

Prediction: Although we miss Archer yet again this series, I have no faith in the hitting right now. As poorly as the Rays hit, there should be a lot of low scoring games. I can see a scenario where they win three of four to right the ship. But I am calling for a 1-3 series this week.