Indians look for first seven-game win streak of season
The Cleveland Indians stayed hot in their opener in Toronto in large part because they got seven strong innings from a reliable starter.
The pitcher the Indians will send to the mound Tuesday night has totaled the same number of innings in his last two starts and struggled against tamer offenses than that of the Blue Jays.
Cody Anderson will make his second start after a 19-day stay on the disabled list and try to guide the Indians (64-66) to their first seven-game winning streak since closing 2013 with 10 straight a night after Danny Salazar led Monday's 4-2 victory.
The win gave Cleveland a 2.39 ERA and .208 opponent batting average over a 7-1 span with the bullpen stringing together 13 2-3 scoreless innings over five-plus games, but Anderson (2-3, 4.30 ERA) will be the third rookie starter Toronto (74-57) has faced in five games. The other two gave up 11 runs in 10 innings.
Anderson got off to an impressive start with a 2-1 record and 0.89 ERA in his first four big league outings, including an eight-inning complete game in Pittsburgh on July 4. The right-hander, though, has since gone 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in five starts.
Complete games have been out of the question as the 24-year-old has made it through at least six innings once. After allowing two runs, two hits and two walks in 4 1-3 innings of Wednesday's 6-2 home win over Milwaukee, he's lasted just seven innings over his last two starts.
It was, however, his first start since Aug. 7 due to an oblique strain, and the loss of Carlos Carrasco cost him the opportunity to get in a rehab start.
"I thought for Cody being down 19 days or whatever, that he did a really good job," manager Terry Francona told MLB's official website. "First time through the order he was really good, second time, I think he was starting to get up a little bit. There were probably more fly balls than he's normally (getting). I thought he was starting to tire a little bit. But, I thought what he did was great. That was probably farther than we thought he might get."
He's up against Marco Estrada, who's been much more of a sure thing lately.
Estrada (11-8, 3.19) was stuck with the decision in Thursday's 4-1 loss in Texas after limiting the Rangers to a run and four hits in six innings. The right-hander is 4-2 with a 2.23 ERA and .161 opponent batting average in his last six starts.
He's been even better at home with a 4-2 record, 2.02 ERA and .126 OBA in his last six.
The Indians have won three of five over the Blue Jays and another loss would give Toronto consecutive defeats for just the second time in 31 games. The 24-6 stretch includes 6.3 runs per game and an .843 OPS.
Edwin Encarnacion has led the way with a 26-game hitting streak - the longest in the majors this year - which is tied with Shannon Stewart's 1999 run and John Olerud's 1993 streak for second-longest in franchise history. Shawn Green went 28 in 1999.
He's batting .412 on the streak and .373 since the All-Star break, which actually trails Cleveland's Michael Brantley (.385) for the AL lead. Indians rookie Francisco Lindor (.359) isn't far behind in that time, though the more impressive tandem might be Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson.
Donaldson had two RBIs for a third straight game Monday and made them the first since the Boston Red Sox in June 1950 to have multiple players drive in at least 35 runs in a month.
Boston had three players do it - Ted Williams (40), Walt Dropo (37) and Bobby Doerr (36).
