Indians at Tigers (Game 1)
The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader at the New York Yankees on Wednesday and managed to do it without negatively impacting their pitching rotation. The Indians will try to pull the same trick on Friday, when they open a four-game series at the Detroit Tigers with a split doubleheader.
Cleveland owns the best pitching staff in the American League and is showing that off during a seven-game winning streak in which it surrendered a total of 13 runs - seven in the last six - and earned 2-1 and 9-4 wins over the Yankees on Wednesday. The Indians dipped into their pitching depth and pulled Ryan Merritt out to start the second game against New York, allowing them to stay on rotation and keep Carlos Carrasco and Mike Clevinger in line to start at Detroit on Friday. Detroit, which counters with Matthew Boyd and Buck Farmer on the mound, is well out of the postseason race but is trying to play spoiler while coming off a series win over National League wild-card hopeful Colorado. Cleveland (76-56) owns a 6 1/2-game lead over the second-place Minnesota Twins in the AL Central and has crept to within 3 1/2 games of the Houston Astros for the best record in the AL entering Thursday.
TV: 1:10 p.m. ET, STO (Cleveland), FSN Detroit
PITCHING MATCHUP: Indians RH Carlos Carrasco (13-6, 3.78 ERA) vs. Tigers LH Matthew Boyd (5-8, 6.13)
Carrasco bounced back from a poor start against Boston on Aug. 22 by dominating the Kansas City Royals on Sunday. The 30-year-old Venezuelan scattered six hits over seven scoreless innings and did not walk a batter while striking out eight to earn the win. Carrasco is seeing Detroit for the fifth time this season and went 3-1 with a 2.36 ERA in his first four chances, including a home start on July 7 in which he posted a season-high 11 strikeouts in seven frames.
Boyd is hoping to turn the page after a terrible August that saw him go 0-3 with a 8.75 ERA in six games - five starts. The Oregon State product could not finish three innings while surrendering seven runs against New York on Aug. 22 and was ripped for five runs in six frames at the last-place Chicago White Sox on Sunday. Boyd made two starts against Cleveland earlier in the season and went 1-1 while allowing a total of four runs in 13 2/3 innings.
WALK-OFFS
1. Indians OF Brandon Guyer left Wednesday's second game with a neck strain and is day-to-day.
2. Detroit 1B Miguel Cabrera (back) did not start Wednesday and was limited to two at-bats in the three-game series at Colorado.
3. Cleveland RHP Danny Salazar (elbow) is expected to throw a simulated game on Friday.