Cleveland @ Tampa Bay preview
Tropicana Field
Last Meeting ( Jul 8, 2010 ) Cleveland 2, Tampa Bay 5
Thursday was a day to forget for the city of Cleveland.
Cavaliers’ fans burned jerseys of their former hero LeBron James, who ended months of drama by leaving his hometown to play with the Miami Heat.
Meanwhile, the Indians continued to offer little hope to the depressed city’s sports teams. The Tribe lost their third straight game and sank even lower in the American League Central cellar.
Cleveland plays the second of a four-game series on Friday night at St. Petersburg, Fla., against the streaking Tampa Bay Rays.
Tampa Bay has won six straight games and eight of their last nine after opening the series with a 5-2 win over Cleveland on Thursday. Carl Crawford homered twice in the contest and Carlos Pena added a solo shot, his 17th of the season, as the Rays cruised behind Wade Davis.
The Rays will start James Shields in Game 2. Shields had lost seven of his last eight starts before winning at Minnesota 7-4 last time out. He allowed eight hits and four runs in six innings in that contest but the Rays scored five runs in the seventh inning to secure the victory.
But it’s been mostly a season to forget thus far for Shields who has an ERA of 4.83.
Fausto Carmona will start for Cleveland. Carmona is 7-7 on the season and has failed to reach the elite status that most thought he was destined for when he went 19-8 in his first full season in the majors in 2007.
Carmona has a 3.69 ERA this year and has won three of his past five starts. Like Thursday’s starter and loser Jake Westbrook, Carmona has also been a subject of trade rumors. It is unlikely that he’ll be traded anytime soon.
Westbrook saw his personal five-game winning streak against the Rays come to an end. He hadn’t lost to Tampa Bay since 2007.
All the runs in Thursday’s game came via the home run. Crawford hit his ninth and 10th of the year in his first two at-bats. Both came with a man aboard.
Crawford, who will start next week’s All-Star Game, has been on a tear. He has hit in eight of his last 10 games and raised his average to a season-high .321. He is second in the league with 29 stolen bases.
The Indians got homers from Michael Brantley and Andy Marte. Both were solo shots. It was Brantley’s first career home run.
Matt LaPorta missed his third straight game after taking an inadvertent elbow to the face last week. He could return to the lineup tonight.