Indians' Bauer faces Rockies on two days' rest (Jun 07, 2017)
DENVER -- Trevor Bauer will start Wednesday for the Cleveland Indians, coming back on two days' rest to face the Colorado Rockies after his start Sunday at Kansas City was cut short by rain.
Bauer (5-4, 5.83 ERA) worked just 1 2/3 innings against the Royals before a lengthy delay ended his workday. He will become the first Indians pitcher to have two days' rest between starts since a similar rain-delay scenario caused Justin Masterson to start on Aug. 9 and 12, 2011.
"He's resilient, and when we talked to him, he was real excited about it," Indians manager Terry Francona said.
Bauer is 0-0 with a 3.00 ERA in one career start against the Rockies, and he will be making his Coors Field debut. He faced the Rockies at Progressive Field on May 31, 2014, and wasn't involved in the decision as he allowed two runs in six innings.
Rookie Kyle Freeland (6-3, 3.53 ERA) will start for the Rockies.
The Indians did some shuffling to come up with Bauer as their Wednesday starter. The turn was originally going to fall to Cory Kluber, who has made one start since being reinstated from the disabled list. He was out May 3-31 due to a lower back strain.
Cleveland decided having Kluber bat in an interleague game and risk re-injuring his back wasn't worth it. He will start Friday at home against the Chicago White Sox.
The next option was Danny Salazar, who had been moved out of the rotation after a May 27 start. However, Salazar threw 37 pitches in 1 2/3 innings in his second relief outing Saturday and came up with shoulder soreness after that outing. He was placed on the 10-day disabled list Monday.
The Indians were then going to turn to Josh Tomlin but opted instead to have him start Saturday against the White Sox.
"No sense in making Trevor waiting nine days (to start) when he threw an inning and two-thirds," Francona said.
Tomlin is an extreme fly ball pitcher and pitches to contact -- 76 hits in 63 1/3 innings with 44 strikeouts and four walks -- which would not make him an ideal fit for Coors Field, where he has never pitched.
"Try to use common sense," Francona said.
The Indians will be trying to split the two-game series after an 11-3 loss to Colorado on Tuesday dropped their interleague record to 1-6.
Freeland helped the Rockies end a three-game losing streak Thursday at Seattle when he gave up two runs in six innings during a 6-3 victory over the Mariners. In five starts at Coors Field, Freeland is 2-3 with a 3.94 ERA.
In 63 2/3 innings this season, Freeland has allowed 60 hits with 28 walks and 39 strikeouts. He is averaging 3.96 walks per nine innings, up from 2.18 in three minor league seasons.
"I think it kind of comes with being first year in the league," Freeland said. "You're not trying to give the hitter too much. You're trying to be a little more fine than you should."
Regardless of the increased walk rate, Freeland ranks second in the National League with a 59 percent ground-ball rate, and he has a team-leading eight quality starts. So it's not as if more walks are tarnishing Freeland's accomplishments in his first 11 career starts.
"It's nothing I'm going to lose sleep over," he said. "It's something I know needs to keep (my) attention but nothing that I really need to really worry about -- like I need to get my walks down. Then it'll actually take the focus away from me actually competing out there."
