Corey Kluber, RHP, Indians
What’s up: Kluber and the Indians make a rare trip to Coors Field for a two-game interleague series Tuesday and Wednesday. The defending American League champions haven’t been to Denver since 2008, when the Rockies swept a three-game series. Kluber is fresh off the disabled list, where he was dealing with back spasms. He pitched six scoreless innings Thursday and whiffed 10 against Oakland in his first start since May 2. Before going on the DL, Kluber had a disappointing 4.97 ERA in his previous four starts. The right-hander is scheduled to pitch against the Rockies on Wednesday afternoon.
Background: Kluber was on the verge of washing out of the majors until he decided to concentrate on throwing his two-seam fastball, junking his erratic four-seamer. Now he’s one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he almost became a legend of the fall in the 2016 World Series. He entered Game 7 with a 0.89 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP in five starts with 35 strikeouts in 30L innings in the postseason. But he pitched twice on short rest, and it caught up to him in the Game 7 loss to the Cubs. Kluber usually averages 93 or 94 mph with his sinker, but it was down to 92 mph in Game 7 and he was hit hard. For the first time in his big-league career he failed to record a strikeout.
Saunders’ take: Kluber, 31, is one of those old-school pitchers I admire. Despite a strained quadriceps, he pitched well through the final weeks of the 2016 season and helped lift the Indians to the postseason. Kluber didn’t reach the majors until he was 25 and didn’t make his mark until he was 27. But then he won the American League Cy Young Award in 2014 with an 18-9 record and a 2.44 ERA over 235M innings. He has logged a lot of innings in his career, pitching a career-high 249 last season — including 34L innings in the postseason. As a recent ESPN blog noted, it’s not unusual for a pitcher with a heavy postseason workload to struggle the following season. That could explain Kluber’s slow start this year and his trip to the DL. But if his last start against the A’s is any indication, he will be a tough draw for the Rockies on Wednesday.