The face of the Indians has changed a little since last night, as Ubaldo Jimenez is a passed physical away from joining the Tribe and Orlando Cabrera is now a San Francisco Giant.
Amid all the activity surrounding the trade deadline, which comes this afternoon at 4, Cleveland will go for back-to-back wins over the Royals in the last game before a seven-game trip to the leaders of the AL East and West, the Red Sox and the Rangers, respectively.
Fausto Carmona (5-10, 5.34 ERA) gets today’s start, hoping to continue the turnaround that his first two starts since coming off the disabled list have shown. In his last outing Carmona got a no-decision against the Angels, but in that game he went six scoreless innings, allowing only four hits and three walks.
Couple that outing with a win at Minnesota on the 18th, and Carmona has given up only two runs in 12 innings since coming back.
Carmona went seven innings and got the win on April 28 vs. the Royals at Progressive Field, surrendering two runs in an 8-2 Indians’ victory, and for his career, Carmona is 6-4 against Kansas City, with a 4.62 ERA in 87.2 innings.
The Royals will send rookie Danny Duffy (2-4, 5.17 ERA) to make his first career appearance against the Tribe. Duffy has worked 62.2 innings over 12 starts, and has given up 72 hits and 30 walks to go with 54 strikeouts.
Duffy will be starting in place of Kyle Davies, who was scratched from today's start with a sore shoulder.
After today’s game, the Tribe will begin a four-game set against the Red Sox at Fenway on Monday night.