The Cleveland Indians are slowly starting to flex their muscles at the plate to back their consistently strong performances from the mound.
The Indians look to continue both trends on Saturday when they play the third contest of a four-game series against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays.
Cleveland doubled its season home run total on Friday, as Kevin Plawecki belted his first to open the scoring before Carlos Santana sent the fans home with a one-out blast in the ninth inning of a 3-2 victory.
“Everybody knows this is my sweet home and I’m so happy to come back,” said the 32-year-old Santana, who has hit safely in five straight games (9-for-18) while scoring a run in four of those.
Prior to those two blasts on Friday, only Hanley Ramirez had gone deep for the Indians.
Cleveland starters have allowed a total of three hits with 17 strikeouts in 13 innings in the first two games of the series.
Veteran right-hander Carlos Carrasco (0-1, 12.45 ERA) looks to rebound from a dismal performance in his season-opening start when he makes his 2019 home debut. The 32-year-old allowed six runs on 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings of a 9-3 setback at Minnesota on Sunday.
Carrasco owns a 3-1 mark with a 4.78 ERA in eight career appearances against Toronto, although he has yielded 19 runs in 20 innings during four home starts versus the Blue Jays.
Carrasco has kept Justin Smoak (1-for-11, eight strikeouts) under wraps in his career, but he’d be wise to keep an eye on Freddy Galvis. The 29-year-old Galvis broke up the Indians’ combined no-hit bid in Thursday’s opener and belted a two-run homer to highlight a 5-for-7 stretch in the series.
“We have to keep working and try to get better at things, just don’t get too (emotional),” Galvis said. “We know we are having a bad time right now hitting, especially in the early innings. If you keep working, something good is going to happen.”
Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo continues to remain optimistic that his team’s bats will heat up after the club has produced just six hits in the series and 51 in nine games this season. Toronto is just 3-for-30 with 12 strikeouts in the first inning in 2019.
“I can see it in their faces when you say hello,” Montoyo said. “I’ve been there, too. You go to the plate and it feels like there are 20 people (out in the field) and where am I going to get a hit at? So everything I do, I think of how I would feel as a player. I make sure I talk to them.”
The Blue Jays’ pronounced struggles at the plate have overshadowed the performance of their starting pitchers, who have allowed two runs or fewer in eight of their nine games.
Toronto left-hander Thomas Pannone (0-1, 1.80 ERA) will make his first start of the season after right-hander Sean Reid-Foley was demoted following a five-run performance in his last trip to the mound. The 24-year-old Pannone answered a rough inning of work against Detroit on Sunday by allowing one hit and striking out five over four scoreless innings against Baltimore the following day.
Pannone recorded the win in his lone career appearance versus Cleveland, permitting two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings of a 6-2 victory on Sept. 9.