OAKLAND
Jerome Baker Color Rush Jersey , Calif. — Two pitchers looking to create a first positive memory of Sunday’s opponent go head-to-head when the Cleveland
Indians and Oakland Athletics complete a three-game series.
The A’s have won the first two games of the series, getting outstanding performances from starters Paul Blackburn and Edwin Jackson in 3-1 and 7-2
victories.
Oakland, which has won six in a row, allowed five total runs in its last four games.
Right-hander Frankie Montas (4-1, 3.68 ERA) will attempt to continue that run, but will do so in the wake of three consecutive shaky efforts, during which
he has allowed 12 earned runs and 24 hits in 15 innings.
The 25-year-old has never started a game against the Indians, but faced them three times in relief, going 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA in 4 2/3 innings.
One of those bullpen outings against Cleveland came last May, when he gave up two runs in an 8-4 loss.
Montas will have big shoes to fill after the outings by Blackburn and Jackson, who held the Indians to a total of two runs in 13 innings.
With the recent emergence of Blackburn and Jackson and news that Trevor Cahill appears on schedule to return to the starting rotation after the All-Star
break, Montas might only have a few opportunities to turn things around before
losing his job.
A’s manager Bob Melvin gushed over the performance of Jackson on Saturday in his second straight sharp outing after having been signed off the scrap
heap.
“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised,” Melvin said. “That he was available to us was a surprise.”
Having seen the veteran firsthand, the Indians might be wondering why they weren’t the ones who gave the 99-game winner a shot.
Especially with news Saturday that Danny Salazar
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season in question.
Right-hander Mike Clevenger (6-3, 3.03), who got a greater opportunity last year while Salazar had health issues and responded with a 12-win season, will
attempt to salvage one win in Oakland for the Indians on Sunday.
He has pitched well in his last four starts, allowing six earned runs, but he has never beaten the A’s in his career, going 0-1 with a 7.04 ERA in two games
(one start).
The A’s last saw the 27-year-old in a relief role in August 2016 and cuffed him around for four hits and three runs in one inning of a 9-1 victory.
Clevenger will have to hope for more offensive support than the Indians provided Trevor Bauer and Adam Plutko in the first two games of the series. Both
pitched well enough to win, allowing five runs and 11 hits in 12 1/3
innings.
The A’s have used the long ball to get the upper hand against the Indians in the first two games. Jed Lowrie, Josh Phegley, Dustin Fowler and Matt Olson all
hit homers, accounting for six of Oakland’s 10 runs.
With the playoffs just days away, Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue typically would have his lineup
rotations set by now.
Nothing has been typical about this season for the Cavs.
Lue said Thursday that he plans to use a 10-player rotation for Cleveland’s opening-round series against the Indiana Pacers
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”I will play 10,” Lue said after the Cavaliers watched film on the Pacers, who went 3-1 against Cleveland this season. ”We’ll just see how it looks and if
one guy is not great this round, then it might be nine.”
Lue and his staff have been juggling lineups and using different combinations on the floor for months, forced to adjust and re-adjust, first because of
injuries and then by a slew of trades that transformed the team.
Lue refused to name his full starting lineup for Sunday’s Game 1. He revealed previously that four of them will be LeBron James, Kevin Love, Jeff Green and
George Hill. The other spot could go to veteran shooter Kyle Korver, who has
been slowed by a foot injury and whose status remains uncertain.
”He’s getting better,” Lue said of Korver, who also missed time recently following his brother’s death. ”I’m not sure if he’s 100 percent yet, but he’s
getting better and that’s all you can ask for.”
If Korver isn’t ready, Rodney Hood
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said Hood’s ”ready to go.”
As for Cleveland’s reserves, Jordan Clarkson, J.R. Smith and Jose Calderon are in the rotational mix, with forwards Tristan Thompson and Larry Nance Jr.
being used depending on whom Indiana has on the floor.
One of the holdovers from Cleveland’s past three Finals teams, Thompson played extended minutes in the second half of Wednesday’s loss to New York while
Nance rested, a sign that Lue might be leaning toward him playing more.
Thompson was excused from Thursday’s practice because of the birth of his daughter.
Lue trusts all his players. He’s had no choice following a turbulent regular season in which he didn’t always know who would be available until moments
before tipoff. But Lue has depth and intends to use it.
Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley’s philosophy in the playoffs was: ”You rotate eight players. You play seven. You use six and you trust five.”
Not Lue. Not this year.
”You usually go nine,” he said. ”I think we’ve been nine in the past, but I think it’s going to be important to go 10 for us because I like Clarkson being
on the floor with a point guard, so that makes us play 10.”
Hill, who has plenty of playoff experience with San Antonio, Indiana and Utah, said Cleveland’s versatility may give the Cavs an advantage.
”I’ve been on a team that played a 10-man rotation in the playoffs
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lineups, small lineups,” he said. ”I think we can play any type of style.”
For Hill, the matchup against the Pacers represents a homecoming, as he played for IUPUI and spent five years with the Pacers. It’s also a chance to win
a championship with James, a former playoff nemesis.
Hill played on those Pacers teams that were eliminated in three straight postseasons by James and the Miami Heat.
That can’t happen this time.
”The good thing is we got the best player in the world playing for us,” Hill said. ”So I’m very excited about that. I don’t got to get put out by him this
year, which I did a lot in my career. So, I’m happy to be on the other
side.”
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