The pitching-starved Indians have tapped back into their organizational depth for this one, as they will send Logan Allen to the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays. As far as I’m concerned, I would have put an opener out there today in hopes of getting Allen as deep into the game as possible because it looks like it could be quite a struggle.
The Indians are ripe for struggling right now. After facing a simply horrible slate of opponents in June, the Tribe’s schedule has ramped up in July, as evidenced by four straight losses to the Astros and six straight losses overall, including a doubleheader sweep at the hands of the Tigers last week.
The Indians are a huge overachiever to be sure, but there is a decent chance that their offense can do something against Rich Hill on Monday night. A lot of teams have been doing things against Hill lately, whose spin rates have plummeted since he voiced his displeasure with the MLBPA about not standing up for players to a higher degree with the substance crackdown.
Hill has allowed 13 runs on 21 hits in his last 20.2 innings. That includes six home runs allowed in that span. While Hill does have the safety net of Tropicana Field in this one, he is still a pitcher with a limited arsenal going out there with less than his best day in and day out.
The reality of this game, though, is that I’m not sure we’re going to need a ton from the Indians to get this game where I want it to go. Logan Allen was sent down earlier this season after posting an 8.38 ERA with an 8.69 FIP in his six starts. It was as ugly as it looked, as Allen would implode over the course of innings and really fought with both his command and control.
In five starts at the Triple-A level, Allen posted an ERA over 11 and gave up 23 runs on 26 hits in just 17.2 innings of work. At this point, the Indians are desperate for starters with any working body parts, which is how you end up with Allen making this start. He also had 13 strikeouts against 12 walks in that outing.
The Indians bullpen remains the strength of the team, so I’m not sure that I want to butt heads with that unit if it comes down to it, but this game has some offensive potential early on to be sure. I’ve talked about it a lot, but the Rays adopt different styles of offense at home versus on the road. One of the things that they focus on at home is drawing walks.
Against a guy like Allen, drawing walks comes with the territory, but being good at it should mean a lot of base runners and a lot of favorable counts. I’ll take my chances with Tampa Bay being able to cash in on some of those and also hope that the Indians can scratch a few out against Rich Hill.
Pick: 1st 5 Over 4.5
Other game: Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins