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Indians face White Sox in chase for best AL record (Sep 30, 2017)
CLEVELAND -- With two games left in the regular season, Cleveland needs to win one of them or have the Houston Astros lose one of their two remaining games in Boston for the Indians to secure the home-field advantage throughout the American League portion of the postseason.
"The way Houston is playing, we have to keep winning," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "But this is good for us. In this game, you can't just turn the button on and off, so the best thing to do is play the best you can right to the end, and our guys are doing a good job of that."
Caught in the crossfire are the Chicago White Sox, who are playing out their schedule. They absorbed a 10-1 loss at the hands of the Indians on Friday night in the first game of their three-game, season-ending series. On Saturday night, the teams will meet in the second game of the series.
The Indians are 101-59, the second most wins in franchise history. Their record since Aug. 24 is 32-3, which included an American League-record 22-game winning streak, and White Sox manager Rick Renteria is duly impressed.
"Those guys are a fine-tuned team, very gifted, and ready for a postseason run," he said.
Whether the White Sox will have outfielder Nicky Delmonico available for Saturday's game remains to be seen. Delmonico had to leave Friday's game in the sixth inning after injuring his left shoulder while trying to make a diving catch in left field. Renteria said Delmonico will be further evaluated Saturday.
Corey Kluber, who could be on his way to his second Cy Young Award in four years, will start Saturday night for the Indians. It will be Kluber's final tune-up for his start in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Thursday.
How much Kluber pitches in his Saturday start remains to be seen.
"It depends on what he wants to do," Francona said. "I'll talk to him about it and we'll go from there."
Francona obviously doesn't want to extend Kluber in this start, but the Indians manager also said, "We want our guys going into the playoffs feeling good about themselves."
Kluber (18-4, 2.27 ERA) leads the American League in ERA, fewest walks per nine innings (1.6), and opponents' batting average (.190). He's tied for the AL lead in complete games (5) and shutouts (3), and he's second in the league in strikeouts (262) and strikeouts per nine innings (11.9).
In his last 22 starts, Kluber is 15-2 with a 1.62 ERA, a .171 opponents' batting average and almost 200 more strikeouts than walks (221-23).
While Kluber is at his career peak, Carson Fulmer, the White Sox's starter on Saturday, is at the beginning of his. It will be Fulmer's fifth major league start. In six appearances with the Sox this year, four of them starts, Fulmer is 2-1 with a 4.42 ERA.
His only career appearance against the Indians came Sept. 5, when he pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief, allowing one hit with one strikeout and one walk.
