Series preview: Cleveland Indians vs. New York Mets

For all the bad luck of the Cleveland Indians so far this season, at least they are not the New York Mets. Surely, the 2016 National League Champs will bounce back at some point, but their first week of the season has been rough. First, they had to sit and watch the Kansas City Royals receive their World Series, then they ran headfirst into a surprising Philadelphia Phillies pitching staff, and then they dropped two of three against the Miami Marlins. It's been a rough season for the Mets, let's just hope it continues against the Indians.

The Mets come to Cleveland having barely won their last game, a 2-1 win over the Marlins on Wednesday, but prior to that, they were on an awful four-game skid in which they were outscored 6-to-18.

The best news of all: The weather looks great! This series should be played entirely in 50-60 degree weather with bright sunshine.

Matchups

• Friday, 7:10 p.m. ET: Cody Anderson (RHP) vs. Bartolo Colon (RHP)
• Saturday, 4:10 p.m. ET: Josh Tomlin (RHP) vs. Matt Harvey (RHP)
• Sunday, 1:10 p.m. ET: Corey Kluber (RHP) vs. Steven Matz (LHP)

If you have to face the Mets rotation, you cannot ask for a much better matchup than this. The Indians will manage to avoid both Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom. This also means the Indians will finally face a streak of right-handed starters after facing so many lefties in their first seven games. This means that Tyler Naquin should hopefully get some more work, allowing one of Rajai Davis or Marlon Byrd to sit for a few games.

Cody Anderson against Bartolo Colon feels like mostly a wash, maybe a bit of an advantage for the Mets, depending on what kind of pitcher Cody Anderson actually turns out to be. Tomlin vs. Harvey is an obvious nod for the Mets, and Corey Kluber has a large advantage over Steven Matz, who allowed seven earned runs in his first start of the season.

This will be the 12th time Bartolo Colon has pitched against the Indians, the team that originally signed him in 1993. Over his career against the Tribe, he carries a 3.84 ERA. This will be the first time he has pitched a game in Cleveland since May 9, 2013, as a member of the Oakland Athletics when he allowed six earned runs over 4.0 innings of work.

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Upcoming schedule: The Indians will stay home in Cleveland to host the Seattle Mariners before heading out on a lengthy road trip starting with games against the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins.

Abysmal offense and great pitching is the name of the game so far for the Mets. They would be ranked higher in just about every pitching statistic if it were not for the Phillies, of all teams.

Position players

• C: Travis d'Arnaud
• 1B: Lucas Duda
• 2B: Neil Walker
• SS: Asdrubal Cabrera
• 3B: David Wright
• LF: Michael Conforto
• CF: Yoenis Cespedes
• RF: Curtis Granderson