Toronto Blue Jays At Cleveland Indians

Indians home opener at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Series to be played Friday April 12- Sunday April 14th

History:

2007: 4-2 vs. Blue Jays (3-0 in Cleveland)

2008: 6-1 vs. Blue Jays (3-1 in Cleveland, only loss coming in 10 Innings)

Game 1 Probables Friday April 10th 4:05

Scott Richmond vs. Indians (0-1) 5 IP 9H 3ER 5K vs. the Indians

• Shin-Soo Choo is 3-3 Career Vs. Richmond with 3 2B, but no RBI's
• No current Indians Hitter has gone yard against Richmond
• Ryan Garko and Jhonny Peralta are the only tw oactive Indians with RBI's against Rochmond

VS.

Scott Lewis  Never has faced the Jays, Hasen't pitched this season

• No one on the Blue Jays roster has faced Lewis in the big leagues

Game 2 Probables Saturday April 11th 1:05

Roy Halladay Season: (1-0) 6.43 ERA. Since 2007 VS. Tribe: (1-2) 18.1 IP 25H 13R 10ER  18K

• Grady Sizemore only has 3 hits in 17 attempts off Halladay with just one extra basehit
• Martinez and Garko are 7-17 against Halladay
• Travis Hafner is hitting .286 with 3 BB and 4K's

VS.

Cliff Lee Season (0-1) 12.60 ERA Since 2007 VS. Jays: (1-1) 21IP 21H 5ER 6K in 3 Starts. 

• Dominated Jays went 1-0 in 17 IP and did not give up a run in 2 starts in 08 vs. Jays
• Alex Rios hitting .316 Career hitter off of Lee
• Vernon Wells has 2 HR's off Leeand 6 RBI's in 12 AB's

Game 3 Probables Sunday April 12th 1:05

David Purcey Season (0-0) 2.57 ERA vs. Indians (0-1) 6 IP 6H 3ER's and 8K's

• No Indians hitter has faced Purcey more then 3 times.
• Choo is 2-3 with a HR, Ben Francisco also has a HR
• Grady and Peralta are 0-6

VS.

Anthony Reyes (1-0) 6.1IP 7H 1ER 4K and 1BB Vs. Jays

• Only Michael Barrett and Adam Lind have more then 1 Hit off Reyes
• Barrett has the only HR, batting .250 and has 4 RBI's in 8 AB's vs. Reyes
• Lyle Overbay and Jose Bautista are combined 2-16 vs. Reyes

Keys to Win

Indians:

• Get Choo going, he has had the most success against Jays pitching
• Grady has to get on base early and often, offense revolves around him.
• Play small ball, get runs where we can, and make the most of opportunites that they have not been able to capitalize on so far this season

Blue Jays:

• Get to the Indians SP early. Bullpen is solid, but unproven.
• Patience, make the pitchers throw a lot of pitches. Don't go up hacking.
• Defense. The Indians have only been able to generate runs through defensive errors and a Wild Pitch

LETS GET BACK ON TRACK TRIBE!!! First Things first, salvage the series against the Rangers...

 Let's get the ball rolling baby. I will try to do this for as many series as I can. Hope you guys like the info.

Opening Series @ Texas Rangers Breakdown.

Series Played at Texas Stadium in Arlington, TX April 6,8,9.

2007 Vs. Rangers: 6-3

2008 Vs. Rangers: 6-4

2007 @ Texas: 3-1

2008 @ Texas: 5-2

Projected Starters:

Gm 1: Cliff Lee (L) vs. Kevin Millwood (R)

Lee vs. Rangers since 2007; (2-1) 18.1 IP 24H 15ER 7BB 21SO

• Michael Young .409 Career hitter vs. Lee in 22 AB
• Ian Kinsley 5-10 career vs. Lee 3 RBI's
• Hank Blaylock only current Ranger to homer off of Lee

Millwood vs. Cleveland since 2007; (1-0) 6.0 IP 4ER 9H 6K

• Grady Sizemore a career .154 hitter againt Millwood
• Victor Martinez a career .455 hitter against Millwood with 1 HR

• Only 2 current Indians (Martinez and Mark DeRosa) have homered off of Millwood

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Gm 2: Fausto Carmona(R) vs. Vicente Pedilla (R)

Carmona vs. Rangers since 2007: (2-2) 23.0 IP 19H 10ER 10BB 17SO

• Josh Hamilton went 3-4 with 2 2B in only game vs. Fausto
• Marlon Byrd and Frank Catalanotto are 0-16 with 6K
• Michael Young 3-10 with 0 RBI's

Pedilla vs Indians since 2007: (0-0) 9.0 IP 10H 9R 5 ER 4 BB 12K in 2 Starts 

• Jhonny Peralta .385 career with HR and 5 RBI's vs. Pedilla
• Martinez .364 career in 11 AB
• Sizemore and Choo 10-22 reached on base vs. Pedilla

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Gm 3: Carl Pavano (R) vs. Matt Harrison (L)

Pavano vs Rangers since 2007: Has not not faced Rangers in last 3 seasons with Yankees

• Only 3 Rangers on the Major League team have faced Pavano
• Marlon Byrd is 8-20 vs. Pavano 1RBI 2K
• Catalanotto is 3-6 with a double vs. Pavano

Harrison vs. Indians since 2007: (0-1) 3.2 IP 7H 5 ER 2BB 3K

• Ryan Garko and Petalta combined 2-4 with 3 RBI's
• Grady 0-2 1BB 
• No HR hit off of Harrison in only game vs. Indians

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Series Notes:

• The Indians and Rangers are two of the more highly powered offensive teams in the Majors. Even with the Indians many key injuries on offense last year the two combine for over 1700 Runs in 2008 with the Rangers scoring a MLB leading 901 Runs.
• 1st Time Omar Vizquel will play his former team since leaving the Indians to sign with the Giants.

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Unbiased Projections:

Indians win series 2-1. Taking the opener and the finale. Fausto has had 2 very strong outings and 2 weak outings against the Rangers. But the ground ball hawk has sturggled more then had success against Texas.

Well we are just about to undertake another season of Indians Baseball.

The question is, can we expect a better year than last. I hope so,the Indians made some solid aquisitions in the offseason. I am a bit concerned to hear that Grady Sizemore has an injury. Injuries at the beginning of a season never turn out well.

Anyways, good to be back hope to see you all around.

River