After two thrilling and heart-pounding games in this weekend series vs. the Kansas City Royals, the Indians will go for a sweep on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 when Justin Masterson (10-7, 2.83 ERA) takes on Bruce Chen (9-5, 4.12 ERA) at Progressive Field.
Masterson will be making his fourth appearance of the season against the visitors from western Missouri. In his three previous starts, Justin has gone 2-0 in 20.2 innings of work, allowing seven runs. In his last start at home against Kansas City, Masterson worked eight innings and got a no-decision in what became a 5-2 Cleveland win.
Chen has faced the Tribe once in 2011 and came away with a win on April 19 in Kansas City, when he went seven frames and gave up just two runs to The Good Guys.
For his career Chen is 4-2 vs. the Tribe in 10 appearances, including six starts, but has a high 5.03 ERA in 39.1 innings.
Shin-Soo Choo is going to be shut down for a few days, and that will include no swinging bats, after Choo strained his left side in last night’s game and was replaced by Ezequiel Carrera. Tribe manager Manny Acta said that “Choo felt his left side again on one of those swings. He wanted to keep playing, but that wouldn’t have been smart.”
After today’s game, the Oakland Athletics come to town for a four-game series beginning Monday night. David Huff is scheduled to go on Monday night, but the starter for Tuesday (to replace Josh Tomlin, who is on the 15-day disabled list) has yet to be determined.
The Detroit Tigers, who still lead Cleveland by 6.5 games in the American League Central, are in action this afternoon in Minnesota before Detroit goes home to take on the Royals.