CLEVELAND — Cleveland Indians starting pitchers lead the American League in wins with a 44-23 record
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Cleveland’s remarkable starting pitching depth will be on display Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field in the finale of a three-game series with the
Oakland Athletics. The teams split the first two games, with Oakland winning 6-3
on Saturday to snap Cleveland’s five-game winning streak.
Rookie Shane Bieber will start Sunday for the Indians. In a combined 17 starts for Cleveland and Triple-A Columbus, Bieber is 10-1 with a 1.77 ERA — and
he’s the No. 5 starter in the Indians’ rotation.
The rotation is led by two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer, who ranks third in the AL in strikeouts and innings pitched and is fifth
in ERA.
The No. 3 starter is Carlos Carrasco, a 17-game winner last year when he finished fourth in the Cy Young Award voting. The No. 4 starter is Mike
Clevinger, who in 38 starts since the beginning of the 2017 season is 18-7 with
a 3.07 ERA.
“Good baseball starts with good starting pitching
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good starting pitchers.”
Bieber is the newest addition to that rotation, having replaced Josh Tomlin in the No. 5 spot. Like Tomlin, Bieber’s calling card is impeccable control. In
his 17 starts between Cleveland and Columbus, Bieber has pitched 107 innings and
has 101 strikeouts and 11 walks.
In his five starts with the Indians, Bieber is 4-0 with a 2.97 ERA. His last start was the worst of the five
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hits with two strikeouts and one walk.
Sunday will be Bieber’s first career start against Oakland.
The A’s on Sunday will activate left-hander Brett Anderson (0-2, 7.63 ERA) off the disabled list and he will make his first start since May 18. Anderson
was removed from that start after one inning because of a sore shoulder and
placed on the disabled list the next day. In four starts before the injury, he
was 0-2 with a 7.63 ERA.
Anderson will make his first appearance against the Indians since Aug. 27, 2012
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with the Indians: Michael Brantley and Jason Kipnis.
In four career starts against Cleveland, Anderson is 2-0 with a 0.96 ERA.
The A’s on Saturday made a roster move, putting outfielder Matt Joyce on the 10-day disabled list with a lumbar strain, the second time this season that
Joyce has spent time on the DL with the same back condition.
To replace Joyce on the roster, the A’s recalled outfielder Nick Martini from Triple-A. In 73 games with Nashville, Martini was hitting .308 with six home
runs and 40 RBIs. This is his third stint with the A’s this year. In the first
two
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Oakland Raiders offensive lineman Vadal Alexander has been suspended without pay for the first four games next season for a violation of the league
policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
The Raiders made the announcement Tuesday, attributing the information to the NFL. Alexander won't be eligible to play until an Oct. 7 road game against the
Chargers. He can return to practice Oct. 1, a day after the Raiders host
Cleveland.
The 24-year-old offensive guard played in 15 games for Oakland last season with four starts and has appeared in 24 games overall with nine starts in two
NFL seasons.
A seventh-round draft pick in 2016 out of LSU, Alexander can take part in offseason workouts with the team, preseason practices and preseason
games.
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