Kansas City @ Cleveland preview
Progressive Field
Last Meeting ( Aug 28, 2010 ) Kansas City 3, Cleveland 4
The Cleveland Indians have won a laugher and a nail-biter against the Kansas City Royals over the last two days and go for a sweep of their three-game set on Sunday.
The Indians scored a season-high 15 runs on Friday and posted a 4-3 victory in 10 innings on Saturday after blowing a 3-0 lead.
Asdrubal Cabrera led off the 10th inning with a home run to win Saturday's game for Cleveland, which can pull even with the Royals in the race to avoid the American League Central Division basement with a win today.
The Indians had been struggling and were 4-13 in their last 17 games before getting on a bit of a roll. They are looking to complete their first sweep of the Royals in two years.
Cleveland has won three straight while Kansas City has lost four of five. The Indians have won the season series from the Royals for six straight years, and this season's series is tied 5-5 with eight games left on the schedule between the two clubs.
The Indians will go for the sweep behind starter Fausto Carmona (11-12, 4.20 ERA).
Carmona has lost four straight starts and has allowed at least nine hits in each of them while getting through the seventh inning just once. He was recently lit up by the Royals, allowing seven runs and nine hits in five innings of a 9-7 Kansas City victory on Aug. 18.
Carmona, who last won on Aug. 2 at Boston, is 5-3 with a 4.96 ERA lifetime against Kansas City in 13 games, including 11 starts. He has a win over the Royals this season, yielding five hits with two walks and two strikeouts in five innings of a 4-0 Cleveland victory on May 12.
This is not Carmona's first skid of the season - he dropped four straight starts in late May and into early June. He rebounded to go 6-2 in his next eight outings.
Bruce Chen (8-7, 4.88) will get the start for Kansas City and try to help his team salvage the final game of the series. Chen has lost two of his last three starts, with the exception being a victory over the Indians on Aug. 18.
Chen allowed four runs and 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings of that win and is 2-2 in his career against Cleveland.