Indians Look to Rebound from Friday Loss as Plutko Makes First Start of 2019

Friday night the Indians bats went silent as they were defeated by the Orioles by a final of 5-1. Jefry Rodriguez threw 6.2 innings, but allowed two big hits, a solo homer and a three-run shot that spelled doom.

Saturday afternoon at 4:10pm the Tribe and Orioles go at it in game three of their four-game set, as rookie left-hander John Means (5-3, 2.33 ERA) goes for the Orioles against Adam Plutko for the Tribe.

Plutko will get the call up for the first time this season from Triple-A Columbus, allowing right-hander Shane Bieber to start the series finale on an extra day’s rest.

It doesn’t seem to matter how good Plutko throws, the offense has to be more like Thursday when they scored 14 runs, than Friday when they scored a run and managed three singles.

The Indians enter play Saturday at 23-20, the Orioles are 15-29.

Here’s today’s starting nine for Cleveland.

Francisco Lindor SS
Jason Kipnis 2B
Carlos Santana 1B
Jordan Luplow LF
Jose Ramirez 3B
Carlos Gonzalez RF
Roberto Perez C
Jake Bauers DH
Oscar Mercado CF

And the Starting Nine for Baltimore.

2B Jonathan Villar
LF Dwight Smith Jr.
DH Trey Mancini
1B Chris Davis
CF Stevie Wilkerson
3B Rio Ruiz
C Pedro Severino
RF Joey Rickard
SS Richie Martin