Indians Announce Pieced Together Rotation for Final Few Regular Season Games

DETROIT – The Indians final five games of the regular season will see a very different rotation than the one that pitched them to an American League Central Division Title, and it’s not by choice.

Injuries have crushed the pitching staff over the last few weeks, with ace Corey Kluber becoming the latest victim with a strained quad muscle that will sit him till his first start of the postseason.

Today in Detroit, manager Terry Francona announced the rotation for the rest of the regular season, the final game in Detroit Thursday afternoon, and the final three games in Kansas City.

The team already mind you is throwing out Zach McAllister in the scheduled game tonight. McAllister has just one other start this season, and that was an unplanned start the day after the team went 19 innings with the Blue Jays in Toronto on July 1st.

The final five starters will be McAllister, Ryan Merritt against the Tigers on Thursday afternoon, Adam Plutko on Friday against the Royals, Trevor Bauer on Saturday, and Josh Tomlin on Sunday.

Bauer and Tomlin have a combined 55 starts for the Indians this season, the threesome of McAllister, Merritt and Plutko have a combined one start in 2016.

The Indians enter Wednesday’s game at 91-66, the AL East leading Red Sox are 92-65, and the Rangers, champions of the AL West are 93-65.