Preview: Carlos Carrasco and the Indians Look to Take Short Two-Game Series Sweep Against Minnesota in Puerto Rico

The Indians and Twins meet this evening in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the second game of a two-game series with Minnesota. The warmth and humidity played a factor

The Indians and Twins meet this evening in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the second game of a two-game series with Minnesota. The warmth and humidity played a factor in Tuesday's matchup with the Twins which saw the ball carry more compared to both teams previous games this season. Tuesday's game saw four homers come from Cleveland, one from the Puerto Rican native; Francisco Lindor.

The Indians are 9-6 on the year after Tuesday's 6-1 victory over Minnesota, in yesterday's matchup both teams were held scoreless through the first four innings until the Indians struck for two runs in the fifth inning when Francisco Lindor hit a two-run homer, which gave the team a 2-0 lead over the Twins. In the sixth inning, Cleveland hit back-to-back homers when Jose Ramirez started the inning with a homer to right field and was then followed by Michael Brantley for his first home run of the season hit to right center. Cleveland continued to pour it on the Twins, Brantley added an RBI single in the seventh inning and in the eighth inning Yonder Alonso joined in on the home run fun when he hit his 3rd of the season to right field. The Twins were only able to add on one run when Brian Dozier hit an RBI double off of Indians' starting pitcher Corey Kluber in the seventh inning.

Today the Indians will be looking to take both games of the short two-game series with the Twins in Puerto Rico.

Here’s a look at the breakdown for today’s series finale with the Twins.

Date: Wednesday, April 18

Time: 7:10 p.m. ET

Location: Hiram Bithorn Stadium — San Juan, Puerto Rico

Starting Pitchers: Minnesota – Jose Berrios (2-1, 2.18) vs CLE – Carlos Carrasco (3-0, 3.48)

TV Channel: ESPN

Online Stream: MLB.TV

Radio: AM WTAM 1100 and WMMS 100.7

Click the next pages for a preview of today’s battle at Progressive Field.

1.) Cookie Looking to Continue His Recent Success Against Minnesota

During the 2018 season, Carlos Carrasco has made three starts so far in the young season but in each start he has come out on the winning side. Carrasco has a record of 3-0, has an ERA of 3.48, has 20.2 innings pitched, has walked 3, and struck out 14 batters. He is coming off of a complete game victory of the Detroit Tigers and only gave up three hits.

Last season, Carrasco made three starts against Minnesota and had a record of 3-0. Carrasco pitched in 19.2 innings against the Twins, gave up only two runs, struck out 30 Twins' hitters, and walked only 5.

Cookie will look to continue the success he had last season against the Twins tonight in Puerto Rico.

2.) Indians Need To Jump On Berrios Early

Last season, the Cleveland Indians only saw Twins' starting pitcher Jose Berrios once coming on May 13. Berrios pitched 7.2 innings, giving up only two hits, 1 earned run, walking one hitter, and striking out 4. That was Berrios' first start of the 2017 season and he came out on the winning end.

Berrios finished the 2017 season with a record of 14-8, had an ERA of 3.89, pitched 145.2 innings, walked 48, and struck out 139 hitters.

Jose Berrios is off to a hot start in the 2018 season, starting the season off with a complete game shutout against the Baltimore Orioles. In his second start of the season, the Twins right-handed pitcher had a short start only managing to get to the 5th inning and pitched a total of 4.2 innings and giving up 5 earned runs against the Seattle Mariners. Jose bounced back in his most recent starting coming out on the winning end after pitching 7 shutout innings against the White Sox.

The Indians have not seen the Twins righty too often, only seeing him in four starts in his big league career. Cleveland did find some success against him in the 2016 season, managing to come out on the winning end twice out of three starts.

3.) Bring the Crowd Into the Game Early

On Tuesday night, the fans that were inside of Hiram Bithorn Stadium went wild in Francisco Lindor's first at-bat of the night which was just a deep fly ball to center field. Later on in the evening, Lindor hit his second homer of the year and everyone went into a frenzy. From that instant on you could tell that momentum swung in the way of the Cleveland Indians, but the team didn't stop there, Cleveland treated the baseball fans in Puerto Rico to three more homers on Tuesday night.

With Cleveland and Minnesota playing at a neutral field, there is a mix of fans that are both Indians fans and Twins. As soon as someone generated exciting offense the crowd just decided to go with the flow and cheer for just good offense.

You can expect the same thing again tonight and momentum will be a big key in this game especially with a few players coming from Puerto Rico in Lindor, Roberto Perez, Twins' starting pitcher tonight Jose Berrios, and Eddie Rosario.