Oakland A's @ Cleveland Indians series preview (May 6-9)

(18-14) Oakland Athletics @ Cleveland Indians (14-14)

Probably Starters:

Game 1 -|- May 6th, 7:05PM ET. -|- Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2) 7.13 ERA vs Jarrod Parker (1-4) 7.36 ERA

Game 2 -|- May 7th, 7:05PM ET. -|- Zach McAllister (2-3) 3.30 ERA vs Tommy Milone (3-3) 3.69 ERA

Game 3 -|- May 8th, 7:05PM ET. -|- Justin Masterson (4-2) 3.64 ERA vs A.J. Griffin (3-2) 3.79 ERA

Game 4 -|- May 9th, 12:05PM ET. -|- Scott Kazmir (1-1) 6.28 ERA vs Bartolo Colon (3-1) 3.62 ERA

Manager, Terry Francona hopes for the Tribe
to continue its scorching offensive production.

How they got here:

The Tribe are winners of 6 of their last 7. They took two of three from the Twins in their most recent series. Good consistent pitching and averaging over 8 runs per contest of their last 7 games has been a good recipe for the Tribe. They hope to rebound from their 4-2 loss Sunday against the Twins.

Former Indians Bartolo Colon will face
 the Tribe in the finale of the series.

The Athletics are a solid team once again this year. They took 2 of 3 from the Yanks in their last series and have won 5 of their last 7. They sit 2.5 games behind the AL West leading Texas Rangers. This team hopes to be fighting for the West or a wild-card berth in the playoffs this year.  Their Billy Beane-style line-up is full of guys who aren't big names, but will produce. Guys like Josh Donaldson, Coco Crisp and Brandon Moss have done a great job producing this season. Their offense is impressive, leading the league in runs, but they have issues with allowing runs.  Their run differential is only +16, compared to a +20 by the Tribe. Also, they will be missing Coco Crisp because he is currently on the 15-day DL with strained hamstring. Also on the DL for the A's is OF Chris Young.

Early season rankings: (ML-ranking)

Runs Scored: 

Cleveland 142 (8th) 

Oakland 166 (1st)

Runs Allowed:

Cleveland 122 (11th) 

Oakland 150 (27th)

Batting Average:

Cleveland .275 (3rd)

Oakland .253 (14th)

Team ERA:

Cleveland 4.10

Oakland 4.20

Fun stat: From Elias: In a performance reminiscent of his days with the Rays, Scott Kazmir struck out seven batters over six innings to earn the victory in the Indians' 7-3 win over the Twins. Not that long ago, Kazmir was one of the stars of the rookie class of 2005. In fact, he led all pitchers from that class in strikeouts until late in the 2010 season when he was passed by none other than Felix Hernandez. In fact, even though Saturday's win was Kazmir's first since September 2010, he still ranks fourth in strikeouts among the Class of 2005 (1008).

Impact players for the series:

Stubbs looks comfortable
in Cleveland.

Cleveland: Drew Stubbs-

Considered by many as more of a throw in than anything else in the Shin-Soo Choo trade, this young outfielder has shown that maybe all he needed was a change in scenery. Stubbs was one of the top prospects in baseball after being drafted 6th overall in the 2006 draft by the Cincinnati Reds. Since then, his career .243 Average was appalling to many Reds' fans.  The speedy Stubbs has had a bit of a resurrection in the early goings of this season though, hitting .274, and although he does lead the team in strikeouts with 29, Stubbs has still been a valuable hitter in the 9-hole of the lineup. Stubbs has been hot as of late, seeing the ball well and consistently making solid contact.  Stubbs is hitting .357 over the last 7 days (10-for-28), with 4 doubles and 1 HR.  Watch for Stubbs to stay hot.

Honorable mention: Asdrubal Cabrera, Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis.

Brandon Moss is one of the leaders of the A's
 offense. The Tribe will need to shut him down.

Oakland: Brandon Moss-

Moss has been one of the hotter hitters on this Oakland squad for the last week.  Hitting .300 with 2 HRs in his last 6 games.  Expect a cast of Donaldson, Crisp and Moss to power this offense that ranks first in the league in scoring runs. Moss is hitting .290 on the season, and his on-base percentage is up near .400.  This team, typical of a Billy Beane built team, is going to draw a lot of walks and play small ball to produce runs.

Keys for the series:

1. Change your luck: The Indians went 2-8 last season against Oakland, losing the last 8 in a row. The Tribe also went into the Minnesota series being reminded that they dropped 12 of 18 from the Twins.  It's time to change their own luck and beat a potential playoff team in a series.  Say what you will about Eric Wedge, former Indians manager, but he always said to try and win each series. If the Tribe can keep doing this, a playoff team, they could be!

Ubaldo Jimenez starts game 1 of the series vs Oakland.

2. Goodbaldo or badbaldo? : Ubaldo Jimenez will start the series opener tomorrow.  Jimenez's last outing was one of the most impressive of his tenure in Cleveland (7 IP and only 3 hits allowed). His fastball was popping the radar gun at 96 MPH and he was locating his pitches well.  But as my friends and I always say, which Ubaldo will we see? If Jimenez can pitch like he did in his last outing, the Indians will swing a lot of momentum in the first game of the series.  The offense should be able to continue it's hot ways (scoring over 8 runs a game in the last week). As the Athletics starting rotation is nothing to write home about.

3. Continued Consistency:  The keys for this series were difficult to make because the team has been playing so well. It is difficult to pinpoint a whole lot of negativity over the last week.  Tribe starters have all hit over .300 except for Lonnie Chisenhall (.267, which is improved anyway) and Nick Swisher (.200, but he is coming off of injury).  If the offense stays consistent and continues to put the ball in play, while the pitchers continue to give quality starts (6 of the last 7 have been quality starts), then there is a solid chance the Tribe can take at least 3 of 4.  The pitching staff and defense will be the biggest keys, however, as the Athletics have a very high-powered offense.

Next series: @ Detroit Tigers, Friday-Sunday.

Here are some links for the day! Don't forget to check out these other stories:

-Stay updated on the last week of baseball for the Tribe and their AL Central foes. With the AL Central weekly update!

-See the opinions of the writers on the blog from last Friday's Roundtable Discussion.

-Check out our weekly advanced stats analysis and see how your Indians fared against the rest of the league in last week's Tribe Advanced Stat Report.

-Lastly, check out our very own Danny Wisard's opinion on the Brett Myers signing with this opinion piece.

Also, be ready for new opinion articles this week on Scott Kazmir and Mark Reynolds.  We also have minor-league reports, injury reports and much much more here on your favorite site for Cleveland Indians news and analysis!