Cleveland @ Kansas City preview
Kauffman Stadium
Last Meeting ( May 11, 2010 ) Cleveland 8, Kansas City 2
The Cleveland Indians are still striking out entirely too much, but at least some of their core guys are starting to come around.
Cleveland enters Wednesday’s game at Kansas City on a two-game winning streak. It may not sound like much, but it’s the team’s first winning streak in nearly a month.
The last time the Indians won two straight was April 15-18, when they swept the White Sox en route to a season-best four-game winning streak.
But there is still plenty of work left. The Indians struck out 10 times Tuesday, the seventh time in their last eight games they’ve had at least 10 strikeouts. Russell Branyan delivered his first two homers of the year, though, and Grady Sizemore stole a couple of bases.
If Cleveland has any chance at turning this season around, Branyan and Sizemore will both play large roles. Branyan returned to Cleveland, where he began his career, as a free agent after hitting a career-high 31 homers last year for Seattle. Chronic back problems kept him out for most of spring training, which in turn forced him to start the season on the disabled list.
Branyan has been slow to get going – he was batting .200 at the start of Tuesday – and his long swing has produced 17 strikeouts in his first 40 at-bats - or one whiff every 2.4 at-bats.
Sizemore hasn’t been much better. After playing through a painful hernia and elbow injury last season, Sizemore enters today batting .223 – and that includes his 2-for-4 day against the Royals on Tuesday. Sizemore also swiped a pair of bases to double his season total to four. It was only two years ago when Sizemore stole 38 bases, but those days seem to be a distant memory.
Winning is a faint memory in Kansas City. The Royals have now lost six straight and will turn to Kyle Davies, who is coming off his worst outing of the season. He was blasted for nine runs in four-plus innings against Texas, ballooning his ERA to 5.45.
Frustrations are mounting in Kansas City for a team that has lost nine of its last 10 games. Manager Trey Hillman boiled over in the seventh inning on Tuesday, getting ejected while arguing Sizemore’s steal of third.
After the game, Hillman conceded that third base umpire Jim Reynolds got the call right, but it did little to soothe his disappointment.
All the losing has called Hillman’s job security into question, although general manager Dayton Moore seemed to squelch that by telling the Kansas City Star that Hillman is “exactly what our organization needs at this time.”
Well, besides a win, of course.