Game Thread: Tribe attempts to get to .500

Cleveland Indians @ Kansas City Royals

Wednesday, June 3, 8:10 ET, Kauffman Stadium

TV: STO, MLBTV

Radio: WTAM

If the Indians win tonight, they'll accomplish a couple things; they'll get within 4 games of Kansas City, and 4.5 games of first-place Minnesota (man is it weird typing that) but also get back to the .500 mark, an ultimately irrelevant mark (you are competing with other teams records, not a pre-determined record) but still one that does confer some accomplishment with it. It means that for all the bad baseball we saw in April has been balanced with good baseball since. The forces of baseball good (wins) and evil (losses) will have been balanced.

Of course the Indians still actually need to win tonight for that introspection to happen. They do give themselves an excellent chance of winning by sending Corey Kluber to the mound. Kluber was sensational in the month of May, posting a 2.95 ERA and having a strikeout/walk ratio of 10:1 (60/6). If you look at just his last four starts (beginning with his 18-strikeout masterpiece on May 13), the numbers are even more incredible: 32 IP, 1.41 ERA, .512 OPS against (.323 BABIP), 50(!) SO, 2 BB.

The Royals will counter with Jason Vargas, who pitched well against the Indians the last time he faced them, allowed just two runs in six innings of work.