Gameday Preview: Rays' Starter Corey Kluber Faces Former Cleveland Team on Saturday
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — In the long and storied history of the Cleveland baseball franchise, there's been plenty of great pitchers through the years. Corey Kluber is on that list.
Kluber spent nine years with the Cleveland Indians, winning 63 percent of his games (98-58) and two Cy Young award from 2011 to 2019. He has a career 3.24 earned run average, which is sixth-best among all active pitchers over 1,000 innings.
This is his first year with the Rays and he's been a solid piece of the starting rotation. He's 6-6 on the year with a 3.91 ERA, and he faces his old team — the new Cleveland Guardians on Saturday for the first time with Tampa Bay. He pitched against them once last year when he was with the New York Yankees, pitching six scoreless innings and allowing just four hits.
He's 36 years old now, and still knows how to get it done.
"He's evolved as a pitcher, he's changed as a pitcher a little bit,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Certainly he had more power, but you see guys that are really good that can keep up with themselves, and I think Corey has done that.
"I look at guys like CC Sabathia, big, big power, and then he had to evolve to be more pitcher and command friendly. Curt Schilling did it, and I put Corey in that same category of guys who had success early and then continued to have success.''
Kluber very much appreciates his time in Cleveland, but says Saturday will be just another game.
“Once the game gets going, it feels like any other game,” Kluber said on Friday. “Prior to that, you take time to go see guys in the clubhouse. The organization is very special to me. But once the game starts, it’s really different.
“We were fortunate to have a lot of guys who played together for a really long time. A lot of guys still consider ourselves friends, even though we’re in different spots now.''
Here's how to watch Saturday's game, with TV information and starting lineups, plus pitching bios and a ton of newsy nuggets.
How to watch Guardians at Rays
- Who: Cleveland Guardians (51-48) at Tampa Bay Rays (53-47)
- When: 1:10 p.m. ET, Saturday, July 30
- Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Fla.
- TV: Bally Sports Sun
- Stream: Fubo.tv CLICK HERE
- Announcers: Dewayne Staats (play-by-play), Brian Anderson (color commentary) and Ryan Bass (reporter).
- Radio: WDAE 95.3 FM, SiriusXM Channel 182
- Latest line: The Rays are favored at minus-146 on the money line in according to the Fanduel.com website line as of Friday morning. The Guardians are plus-124. The over/under is 7.5.
Starting pitchers
- Zach Plesac, Guardians: Zach Plesac is just 2-8 this season with a 4.09 earned run average. He is 0-3 in four starts in July, with a 5.09 ERA. He started last Monday against Boston and gave up three runs in five innings in the 3-1 loss.
- Corey Kluber, Rays: Corey Kluber is making his 20th start of the season on Saturday. He's 6-6 with a 3.91 ERA. He struggled a bit in his last two starts – both against Baltimore — allowing four runs in each start.
Projected lineups
- CLEVELAND GUARDIANS: Steven Kwan LF, Amed Rosario SS, Jose Ramirez 3B, Owen Miller 1B, Andres Gimenez 2B, Franmir Reyes DH, Nolan Jones RF, Luke Maile C, Myles Straw CF, Zach Plesac P.
- TAMPA BAY RAYS: Ji-Man Choi 1B, Luke Raley LF, Yandy Diaz 3B, Brandon Lowe 2B, Randy Arozarena DH, Josh Lowe RF, Taylor Walls SS, Brett Phillips CF, Rene Pinto C, Corey Kluber P.
Newsy nuggets
- NUGGET No. 1 — For the first time all season, Rays first baseman Ji-Man Choi is batting leadoff on Saturday. "Just mixing it up,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "I don't have a good answer or reason, just mix it up. It it makes some guys comfortable, great. If it makes them uncomfortable, that's fine, too. We need to find ways to get something going. Ji-Man's been giving us pretty good at-bats, but this is just a change of scenery for a lot of them.''
- NUGGET No. 2 — The Rays made another roster move on Saturday, activating left-handed pitcher Jalen Beeks from the injured list. He had been out for two weeks with a lower leg/calf injury. Reliever Luke Bard was sent back down to Triple-A. "The calf issue is completely healed, and we might have him out there today,'' Cash said. Beeks was thrilled to be back on the roster. "I never really had any pain, but I had swelling and kind of moved around. It was weird. It was an antsy 15 days. I don't like not working. I did enough of that last. I just hung out with my family. I've got three kids and a wife, so it was nice to enjoy a small break.'' The Rays have made 163 roster moves this season, including 69 in the month of July alone.
- NUGGET No. 3 — Through 100 games, the Rays are 53-47, just six games over .500. Considering they got to six games over .500 for the first time way back on May 5, they've played just .500 ball since then, going 37-37 since. They won their first game out of the All-Star break to tie a season-high at 11 games over .500, but are just 1-6 since then.
- NUGGET No. 4 — The Rays are averaging only 4.11 runs per game this season, a precipitous drop from a year ago, where they averaged 5.29 runs per game a year ago. That 1.17-run decline is the largest in the majors this year, slightly ahead of the last-place Oakland A's, who are at 1.14.
