Preview: Indians Hope to Continue Success Vs Tigers Tonight at Home

Friday night marks the beginning of the end of a nine game homestand for the Cleveland Indians. The Indians are winners of four straight after dropping the

Friday night marks the beginning of the end of a nine game homestand for the Cleveland Indians. The Indians are winners of four straight after dropping the first two of the homestand, and tonight they look to make it five in a row as the Detroit Tigers come to town. Shane Bieber will be on the hill for the Tribe as the the Tigers counter with Mike Fiers (5-3 4.09 ERA.)

Detroit has lost two straight after winning five in a row and moving up to second in the AL Central. If the Tigers wish to hang out around in the division this series is an important one for Detroit as they could really use some success against Cleveland.

Below are three things to watch during tonight’s game.

1. One Sided Affair

Friday night will be the 11th meeting this season between the Indians and Tigers, with the Indians dominating the season series (7-3.) Not only have the Indians been able to win, but they have averaged five runs a game while only allowing Detroit to score 2.7 runs per game. Coupled with the Tribe averaging nearly six runs at Progressive field, this weekend series should be a one sided affair for the boys in the home clubhouse.

As these two clubs have been the class of the AL Central for the 2010s, the team who wins the season series has gone on to win the division more often than not. Ask any Indians fans about all the losing the Tribe suffered at the hands of the Tigers a few years back, now the Indians are returning the favor.

2. Is Jose Elite?

A funny yet unsurprising thing has occurred through the first 73 games of the Indians season. Cleveland third baseman Jose Ramirez has been underappreciated by the masses in the baseball world. Coming into Friday nights contest JRam has a very impressive slashline, .291/.391/.611 with 22 homers, but the most impressive stat of all is probably his walk (45) to strikeout (38) ratio. Not only is Ramirez making great contact when at the plate, but he is also extremely difficult to get out.

Strikeout rate: 11.8 percent (10th lowest)
Walk rate: 14.0 percent (13th highest)
Contact rate: 86.2 percent (16th highest)
Out-of-zone swing rate: 23.8 percent (26 lowest)

For the fourth consecutive season MLB is on pace to set a new record high in strikeouts. In an age where strikeouts are so common, it's refreshing to see such a talent as Ramirez zig when everyone else is up and down.

3. Audition of Sorts

Coming in the season the Indians had plans of keeping Josh Tomlin as the anchor at the backend of the starting rotation, unfortunately Tomlin’s season fell short of expectations. Thus leaving the all important 5th spot in the starting rotation up for grabs, insert Adam Plutko and Shane Bieber.

Both Plutko and Bieber have made a few spots starts for the Tribe this season, and both have fared rather well. So much so that Indians manager Terry Francona has himself quite the decision to make regarding the final starter. As things stand right now, Bieber has the upper hand on Plutko. Friday will mark Bieber’s third start this season (1-0 3.79 ERA) and following his last start Indians manager Terry Francona had glowing praise. This is the first time he's pitched for us and not gone back down (to the minors) after he pitched," Francona said.

"I think settling into a routine at the big-league level will be good for him. To be able to watch guys like (Corey) Kluber during the week will really help. The people in our player development department rave about his temperament, his makeup and his work ethic."