The Giants will host the Indians this weekend for their first inter-league series of the season.
Surprisingly, Cleveland represents the first team the Giants will play outside of the NL West this year, breaking a streak of 22 consecutive games of division play.
The last time these teams played head-to-head was in 2011, with San Francisco taking all three games of the series.
Cleveland's previous series: The Indians took three out of four against Kansas City with some dominating pitching, including an 11 strikeout performance by Corey Kluber on Thursday.
The offense was rolling as well, collecting 38 hits in the four game series, although it led to just 16 runs.
Overall, the Indians sit at 11-11 on the year, fourth place in the AL Central.
San Francisco's previous series: The Giants wrapped up a frustrating series and road trip with an offensive explosion, scoring 12 runs and hitting six home runs en route to a win on Wednesday.
However, they lost two out of three in Colorado, scoring just three runs combined in the two games prior.
They own a 12-10 record, but after a 2-4 road trip, they now trail the first place Dodgers by one game.
Cleveland's probable starters: 4/25 – Carlos Carrasco (0-2, 7.31 ERA), 4/26 – Zach McAllister (3-0, 2.28 ERA), 4/27 – Danny Salazar (0-3, 7.85 ERA)
San Francisco's probable starters: 4/25 – Tim Hudson (2-1, 2.40 ERA), 4/26 – Tim Lincecum (1-1, 6.43 ERA), 4/27 – Ryan Vogelsong (0-1, 7.71 ERA)
Three things to know for the series:
1) Michael Brantley leads the offense: Brantley may not be a household name, but the 26 year old outfielder has quietly become a stabilizing force in the Cleveland lineup.
In fact, the Washington native leads the Indians in almost every offensive category this season: average (.296), home runs (4), RBI's (19), on-base (.374), hits (24), runs (13), and steals (4).
With a lineup that includes Jason Kipnis, Carlos Santana, Asdrubal Cabrera and Michael Bourn, it's easy to overlook Brantley – but the Giants need to make sure they don't let that happen in this series.
Brantley is essentially the Indians' version of Hunter Pence – a guy that may not always take over a game, but always finds a way to do the little things that will ultimately make the difference.
Although Brantley isn't a guy who you have to specifically game plan for, if the Giants can slow down his bat, it will put pressure on the rest of the lineup, and that's good news – Cleveland ranks 11th in the American League with a .245 team batting average.
With both Kipnis and Cabrera struggling to start the year, shutting down Brantley and challenging them to produce will be a key to success.
2) Don't be fooled by the numbers: Only two of the six starters in this series own an ERA under six.
While that may suggest that the offenses have an edge in this series, don't jump the gun quite yet.
The four starters with those respective ERA's – Carrasco, Salazar, Lincecum and Vogelsong – all have the ability to turn in a dominant performance at a moment's notice.
On the Cleveland side, Salazar is a pitcher to watch. Despite the ugly ERA, the young flamethrower possesses some serious swing-and-miss stuff.
The 24 year old has struck out 88 batters in 70.1 innings in his brief career.
The concern with Salazar is his pitch location and the speculation that he may be tipping his pitches.
He struggles the third time through the lineup, as hitters are posting a .409 average when facing him for the third time in a game.
If he's on with location, Salazar can baffle any lineup, but if he's off, things can get ugly – reminiscent of ex-Giant Jonathan Sanchez.
On the San Francisco side, Lincecum's ERA has actually been steadily decreasing over his last few starts.
His ERA was blown up by his poor second start (seven runs in four innings), but he's given up just four runs over his last 11 innings since.
His last home start came against a potent Dodgers lineup, where he allowed just one run in five innings.
Lincecum has an 8-10 career record in inter-league play, and will be making his first career start against the Indians.
He looks to be on the verge of putting it all together, and a solid outing on Saturday may be in order.
3) Unfamiliar territory: The beauty of inter-league play is that it helps break up the monotony of a six month season by giving fans and players alike a chance to see some unfamiliar teams.
However, that can be both a blessing and a curse.
Without much experience playing the Indians, it will be tougher to know the tendencies of both Cleveland's pitchers and hitters.
The Giants have no doubt sent advanced scouts to Cleveland's last few series, but there's no replacement for real life experience.
That means both teams will have to trust the scouting reports more than usual, and hope they can take advantage of them.
The last time these teams matched up head-to-head was in 2011, and while that counts for something, three games in a four year span is not nearly enough to get a good feel for the opponent's tendencies.
Final note: Buster Posey and Carlos Santana were ranked 7th and 10th respectively in the 2010 Baseball America prospect rankings.
They each took over as a full-time starter in mid-2010, but their results have been drastically different since then.
The numbers are similar – Santana has a career average of .249, with 72 home runs and 254 RBI and has recently made the transition to third base.
Posey has a career average of .304, with 65 home runs and 273 RBI.
The biggest difference; Posey has won two World Series and an MVP, among countless other awards. Santana has been shut out across the board in the awards department.
For more content by Chris Kersevan, check out his writer's page and on Twitter @cker7
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