Cleveland Indians vs. LA Angels series preview

The Cleveland Indians are looking to get above .500 as they finish up their first road trip of this young 2018 season.

Opening weekend wasn’t quite as fun as Cleveland Indians fans expected. The Indians dropped their opening series against the Mariners in what was still an exciting weekend. All three games were decided by one run, but the Tribe found themselves on the wrong end of two of those close games.

Now the Indians will play another seemingly eternal west coast series against the Los Angeles Angels, who are coming off a 3-1 series win over Oakland. Two of these games start at 10:07 PM. Thankfully, we have only one more start after 8 PM for the rest of the year after this series.

This will be the second of three different home openers the Tribe play in this season, as their final one will be their own home opener later this week. With that said let’s take a look at how these teams match up.

Projected Lineups

Cleveland Indians (1-2) vs Los Angeles Angels (3-1)

Indians: SS Francisco Lindor, 2B Jason Kipnis, 3B Jose Ramirez, 1B Yonder Alonso, DH Edwin Encarnacion, RF Lonnie Chisenhall, C Roberto Perez, LF Tyler Naquin, CF Bradley Zimmer

Angels: 2B Zack Cozart, CF Mike Trout, LF Justin Upton, DH Albert Pujols, RF Kole Calhoun, SS Andrelton Simmons, 3B Luis Valbuena, 1B Jefry Marte, C Martin Maldonado

Obviously, Yan Gomes will catch in this series as well as the Indians continue to rotate catchers this season yet again. It will be interesting if Zimmer stays in the lineup for this full series as his OBP is an ugly .111. It would not be a shock to see him scratched in favor of Rajai Davis.

Both Zack Cozart and Andrelton Simmons are batting fairly well for LA with OBP’s above .400. Catcher Rene Rivera may also see some time in this series as he has a start for the Angels where he batted .500. The DH matchup features two of baseballs most beloved sluggers in Edwin Encarnacion and Albert Pujols, which should be very fun to watch.