Indians at Tigers (Game 2)
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.
TV: 7:10 p.m. ET, STO (Cleveland), FSN Detroit
PITCHING MATCHUP: Indians RH Mike Clevinger (7-5, 3.72 ERA) vs. Tigers RH Buck Farmer (3-1, 6.17)
Clevinger is coming off a strong outing against Kansas City on Saturday, in which he scattered four hits over six scoreless innings and matched a season high with nine strikeouts. The 26-year-old Florida native surrendered one or no earned runs in six of his last 11 appearances. Two of those outings came in back-to-back starts against Detroit on July 2 and 8, during which Clevinger yielded a total of one run and five hits in 12 frames.
Farmer is in his second stint with the Tigers this season and earned a win at the Chicago White Sox after being recalled on Saturday, allowing three runs and five hits over 5 2/3 innings. The 26-year-old is in his fourth season of bouncing back and forth between Detroit and Triple-A, and he is 6-4 with a 3.93 ERA in 21 starts for the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens in 2017. Farmer is seeing Cleveland for the first time this season and is 0-2 with a 7.20 ERA in four career appearances - two starts - against the division rivals.
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.