Preview: Indians Homestand Continues Tonight in First of Three Vs White Sox

CLEVELAND - After two tough losses against the Twins on Friday and Saturday, the Indians turned to rookie Shane Bieber on Sunday at Progressive Field, and he

CLEVELAND - After two tough losses against the Twins on Friday and Saturday, the Indians turned to rookie Shane Bieber on Sunday at Progressive Field, and he got his first win in the Majors with a solid 4-1 victory.

Tonight the team will take on the 24-46 Chicago White Sox, a team they have seen quite a bit of as of late, as they've played the Sox seven times in the last 19 games, going 5-2 against them.

Trevor Bauer will get the first start for the Indians tonight, going up against Dylan Covey for the Sox, who has thrown the ball well in going 3-1 with an impressive 2.29 ERA for Chicago early on.

Here's a look at tonight's game with a quick preview.

Time: 7:10 p.m.

Starting Pitchers: RHP Dylan Covey (3-1, 2.29) vs. RHP Trevor Bauer (5-5, 2.69)

TV: SportsTime Ohio

Online: MLB.TV

Radio: WTAM 1100am, Indians Radio Network

1. Covey Coming On

White Sox starter Dylan Covey has been nothing but impressive in six starts thus far, and some suggest that A change with his fastball has resulted in him being the most improved pitcher in the Majors.

His two-seam sinking fastball has been his go to pitch in 2018, and it's been the big reason he's been able to make the turnaround into one of the more promising prospects for the Sox, who are clearly in a rebuild mode this year.

Consider last season Covey was 0-7 with a 7.71 ERA, allowing 60 earned runs in just 70 innings pitched.

This season - 9 earned runs in 35.1 innings, dropping his ERA over five runs thus far. He was impressive against the Indians last time out, allowing two runs in seven innings, allowing 10 hits.

We will see if the second time around brings him the same amount of success.

2. How Good Has Bauer Been?

Indians Monday starer Trevor Bauer might be just 5-5 this season thanks to some bad luck, but he's shown again that he might be the second-best starter in this rotation next to Corey Kluber.

Bauer joined Kluber and Bob Feller as the third pitcher in franchise history to record 10 or more strikeouts in four straight games, making his mark during his last outing June 13th against the Sox in a 3-2 loss, going up against Covey.

There's only been one outing this season in which Bauer has gone less than six innings, that coming back on May 11th at home in a 10-9 loss to the Royals in which he went 4.2 innings.

Monday will be Bauer's 7th start at Progressive Field, the team is 4-2 at home when he's on the rubber.

3. Will the Up and Down June Continue?

The Indians haven't exactly set the world on fire in June thus far, going 7-8 in the first 15 games.

The bullpen has remained an issue, but also there seems to be just general lapses in the teams' game, like the other evening when Francisco Lindor committed two errors in a sloppy loss in which Corey Kluber didn't look himself.

There's been some changes in the rotation due to injury as well as the early struggles for Josh Tomlin, and also there's been plenty of rotation in the outfield with injuries and now Erik Gonzalez is getting more time at second base for Jason Kipnis who continues to struggle.

All that said, the team should still be further along than they are. The good news, the AL Central is awful, and even at just four games over .500, the team doesn't seem to have anyone really pushing them to be great two and a half months into 2018.