PREVIEW: Indians Host Rays in Game Two of Weekend Series

CLEVELAND– The Cleveland Indians are coming off a 3-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. RHP Corey Kluber received his 17th victory on the season. The Indians come into Saturday’s game with a record of 77-57, while the Rays are 71-63. The Indians are sitting in first place with the AL Central just about wrapped up. The Rays are still fighting to stay in the Wild Card picture. They currently sit 8 1/2 games out.

Time: 7:10 p.m.

Starting pitchers: RHP Shane Bieber (8-2, 4.52 ERA) LHP Blake Snell (16-5, 2.05 ERA)

TV: FS1

Online: MLB.TV

Radio: WTAM 1100 AM, WMMS 100.7

Here are three keys for Saturday’s game.

1. Score on Snell early

LHP Blake Snell has been extremely impressive this season. He has an 2.05 ERA. In his last 15 games, Snell is 11-2 with 1.36 ERA. More impressively, his WHIP is under one. Snell is coming off a victory against the Boston Red Sox. In six innings, he gave two hits, one earned run, two walks, and eight strikeouts.

2. Get at least five innings out Bieber

Rookie RHP Shane Bieber has been stellar this season. In his last 15 games, he is 8-2 with 4.52 ERA. He’s averaging one walk per game. In the month of August, Bieber was 3-0 with 3.81 ERA. In four out of the five games he started he went at least five innings. For the Indians, that should be a sweet spot-- get to the six inning and then hand the game over the bullpen. If Bieber can give five innings or more, the Indians will be in a great spot.

3. Bullpen continues to show improvement

The Indians got healthy. Then LHP Andrew Miller went down again. RHP Cody Allen fell apart. Now the Indians are working out getting Cody Allen back into shape, and the closer/set-up man pitched a scoreless eighth inning on Friday night and used just nine pitches to do it.