After being rocked in his last outing against the Chicago White Sox, Fausto Carmona, less than three weeks now from his Opening Day assignment against those same Sox, takes the hill this afternoon versus the Los Angeles Angels as the Indians look once again for their first victory since last Sunday.
In the intervening six days, there have been two ties (including the aforementioned White Sox game), with the latest coming yesterday in a 5-5, 10 inning draw against the Mariners.
Los Angeles stands at 7-8 in the Cactus League, while Cleveland comes in at 4-8, and losers of either four or five in a row, depending on which half of the split-squad games of last Sunday you want to consider as the win and which you count as the loss. Confused? Yes, and so am I.
The Angels’ lineup was not available as of this writing, but the starters for Manny Acta’s Indians are as follows:
1) Michael Brantley (L) CF
2) Asdrubal Cabrera (S) SS
3) Shin-Soo Choo (L) DH
4) Carlos Santana (S) C
5) Travis Buck (L) RF
6) Orlando Cabrera® 2B
7) Matt LaPorta® 1B
8) Shelley Duncan® LF
9) Jason Donald® 3B