Cleveland Indians: Previewing the series against the Yankees

The Cleveland Indians will look to avoid any bullpen blunders and to let their offense work its magic as the big bad Yankees come to town.

It’s a good thing that the Cleveland Indians were able to handle some of the big games in their schedule before facing the Yankees right? Oh that’s right. They went 4-8 against their non-division opponents in the last two weeks.

Now they face the New York Yankees who are still playing red-hot baseball and are now looking to add Manny Machado, because of course they are. The Yankees swept the Indians back in early May. I’d like to say a lot has changed since then, but they really haven’t. The Indians bullpen is still a mess, and the offense has to drop 10+ runs to win games.

Now, it’s not all negative. The Cleveland Indians have a huge division lead, and they have an offense that is arguably one of the best in baseball when they’re on their game. But consistency has been a problem, and you don’t want a bad bullpen when you play the Yankees. We saw what happened last time. Here is how these teams stack up this time.

New York Yankees (60-31) vs Cleveland Indians (50-41)

New York Yankees: LF Brett Gardner, RF Aaron Judge, SS Didi Gregorius, DH Giancarlo Stanton, CF Aaron Hicks, 1B Greg Bird, 3B Miguel Andujar, C Austin Romine, 2B Tyler Wade

Cleveland Indians: SS Francisco Lindor, LF Michael Brantley, 3B Jose Ramirez, DH Edwin Encarnacion, 1B Yonder Alonso, 2B Jason Kipnis, C Yan Gomes, RF Tyler Naquin, CF Greg Allen

Well the Indians won’t have to see Gary Sanchez and his .190 batting average. Also, Gleyber Torres is still hurt. Despite Torres’ walk-off homer over the Indians in their last meeting, I actually enjoy watching him. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are hitting a lot homers. It’s about time.

Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez hit more homers than Judge and Stanton. Ramirez and Lindor have combined for 52 homers and 54 doubles, the first duo at the age of 25 or younger to do so in MLB history. They’ve hit four combined homers in the last two games.