Series preview: Cleveland Indians at Minnesota Twins

After winning their past two series, including the bats finally waking up last weekend, the Indians go on the road for their longest trip of the year. The first stop on this four city tour will be in Minnesota to take on the Twins and their pitching staff they bludgeoned last weekend.

• Friday 8:10 PM: Corey Kluber (R) (R) vs. Trevor May (R)
• Saturday 7:10 PM: Josh Tomlin (R) vs. Tyler Duffey (R)
• Sunday 2:10 PM: Carlos Carrasco (R) vs. Kyle Gibson (R)

The Upcoming Schedule: After departing Minnesota, the Indians will continue this road trip by playing three in Fenway, four in Yankee Stadium and then the makeup game in Wrigley before coming home to play the Brewers.

Division Watch: Angels at Royals, Tigers at Astros, Cubs at White Sox.

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Team in a Box

After last week's visit to Progressive, the Twins went home and took two of three from the Rangers to reach 0.500 again. They had a walkoff on Tuesday, an 11-1 thrashing on Wednesday, but lost 6-5 yesterday.

Projected Roster

The only change from the start of the last series was to add backup catcher Chris Herrmann to the roster.

The Twins offense also did some damage last weekend against Tribe pitching, scoring 15 runs, including hitting five homers. Hicks was 5-12, Hunter was 3-7 and Rosario 4-9. The home runs came from Dozier, Hunter, Mauer, Suzuki and Rosario.

Projected Staff

#includes stats with Rays

Phil Hughes landed on the DL after the Sunday start, so Tyler Duffey will be taking his place in the rotation this weekend. They also activated A.J. Achter during our last series. That means the Tribe won't face any of the starters from last week.

May was in the rotation until the first of July when he moved back into the pen. This will be his first start since then, he pitched two scoreless innings in Cleveland last weekend. He won his April 19 start but was ripped in his May 10 start against the Tribe. Duffey made his MLB debut in a spot start on August 5 and was hammered by the Blue Jays. He is a fifth round pick from 2012 who has a 2.53 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 7.2 K/9 in 14 starts with Rochester (AAA) this year. Gibson has not been good lately, 7.39 ERA, 1.68 WHIP and 8.0 K/9 in last 5 starts, covering 28 innings. He has not faced Cleveland this season and has a 5.61 ERA, 1.48 WHIP and 3.9 K/9 in five career starts.

Both Achter and O'Rourke were the main sources of fanning the flames last weekend as the Tribe scored 6 runs off Achter and 3 off O'Rourke.

On the Shelf

• SP Phil Hughes [15 day DL], possible late August return
• SP Tom Milone [15 day DL], possible mid-August return
• SP Ricky Nolasco [60 day DL], possible September return
• P Ryan Pressley [60 day DL], possible late August return

Almanac

*Does not include 2015 stats

Prediction: I'd love to call for a sweep, but will settle for a series win.