Turns out that a nearly two-hour rain delay on Monday acted as a blessing in disguise for the Cleveland Indians, who routed the Royals, 8-0, to prevent a three-game sweep in Kansas City. It was also Cleveland’s second 8-0 shutout victory in its last four games.
Second baseman Jason Kipnis is starting to catch fire, as he just hit his seventh home run of the season in Monday’s victory. All seven of Kipnis’ homers and 19 of his 33 runs batted-in have come over his last 23 games.
The Indians will now travel to Colorado to face the Rockies for a brief two-game set, and Mile High is a fine location indeed for them to reignite their middle-of-the-pack offense. They’ll certainly need generate runs consistently with young righty Mike Clevinger (2-2, 3.10 ERA) set to start this Tuesday.
Clevinger’s been quite a road warrior this season with a combined 12.2 innings without allowing a run in his last couple of starts away from Cleveland. However, he’ll have to be wary of the run-friendly confines of Coors Field, and he also had just taken a loss in his most recent start versus the A’s, surrendering three runs in 6.2 innings.
Unlike the Indians, the Colorado Rockies had a much better series against weaker opposition, winning 3-1 on Sunday over the Padres to take two of three meetings in San Diego.
The Rockies also posted back-to-back games of just one-run ball against their NL West rivals, and that’s been the difference for them this season: better pitching. They’re a decent 12th in the majors in team ERA (4.17) and ninth in WHIP (1.30) despite having their home field work to their pitchers’ disadvantage.
Although Monday’s starter in rookie Antonio Senzatela (7-2, 3.49 ERA) did not look his best in his last start – four runs given up in Seattle – he’s actually done better at home in general. The Venezuelan righty isn’t fazed by Coors Field whatsoever, currently boasting a 5-1 record and 3.00 ERA in his last six home starts.
Senzatela can also take comfort from the fact that his team’s offense has backed him up with a whopping average of 9.6 runs scored over his last five outings. Colorado’s hot bats haven’t cooled off at that, as Nolan Arenado extended his hit streak to four games in Sunday’s win. Meanwhile, Charlie Blackmon got two hits off of the Padres for the third-straight time, and Trevor Story also added a couple of hits on Sunday to give him six hits and four RBIs over his last four games.
Writer’s Prediction
The Rockies (-110) pile up runs early to pick up the win, 7-3.
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