Know Thine Enemy: Let's Go Tribe
Carrasco made his debut with the Indians in 2009, at 22. The right-hander made five starts, and royally sucked. In his two starts with the club this year, he's been better...which wouldn't be difficult.
In 13.1 innings this year, just 2.6% of balls in play have been line drives, while an unbelieveable 64.1% have been ground balls. That's insane. The problem for Cleveland is that if somebody puts one in the air, it's landing in the seats about a third of the time. Put a charge into one, and it could be a brief night for Mr. Carrasco.
Blackburn is facing off against a lineup that has on-base percentages of: .291, .319, .388, .368, .309, .303, .311, .275, .268. Now, we certainly all understand that pitchers have bad days and even a terrible offense can score runs from time to time, but if Blackburn allows more than three runs and pitches less than seven innings I'll be disappointed.
Span, CF
Hudson, 2B
Mauer, C
Kubel, RF
Cuddyer, 1B
Thome, DH
Young, LF
Valencia, 3B
Hardy, SS
Indians
Brantley, CF
Cabrera, SS
Choo, RF
Hafner, DH
LaPorta, 1B
Crowe, LF
Donald, 2B
Valbuena, 3B
Marson, C