Ottawa heads to
Cleveland for four games sitting in 4th place in the Cum Posey division with a 10-16 record. Cleveland is only a game better at 11-15 in the Effa Manley Division, making this a series of evenly-matched mediocrity. Cleveland has struggled to score runs, while the Mounties have just struggled.
The expected pitching matchups are (Ottawa hurler first)
Roy Halladay (0-2, 5.34 ERA) v.
Cy Young (1-2, 3.35 ERA);
Randy Johnson (1-3, 7.27) v.
Whit Wyatt (1-0, 1.74);
Bob Brown (0-1, 4.91) v.
Pat Malone (2-1, 4.55); and
Old Hoss Radbourn (1-2, 5.40) v.
Bill Steen (1-0, 2.30).
Some of the storylines appear right there: at what point do the Mounties give up--for the time being--on the immense talent contained in Johnson's tall frame? Can Steen and, especially, Wyatt, continue to be essentially unhittable? (You could add Young to that, who has a 1.23 ERA over his last 14 innings.)
If Ottawa can get that far, closer
Tom Henke has been lights-out, allowing only 3 hits in 10 IP so far, leading to 7 saves. Relievers
Ted Bowsfield and
Gary Lavelle each have streaks of 4 scoreless appearances, so there has been some improvement there.
Cleveland is led by
Ron Blomberg (302/396/558) and
John Ellis (255/321/608), and come into the series having just shuffled quite a bit of their lineup, instituting
Sammy Strang into a platoon at 3B with
Evan Longoria and
Peanuts Lowery and
Rowland Office into one in LF (Lowery was recalled when Office went down with an injury, and has hit well enough to stay). The key for the Spiders is if either
Larry Doby (163/278/286) or
Louis Santop (222/300/333) can get some offense going.
Ottawa's offense has been effective at times, mostly when
Larry Walker (345/406/690) has been healthy and
Tim Raines (298/407/462; 12 SB) has been loose on the basepaths. Things fall off dramatically after those two, and the Mounties need better production throughout their lineup, but more from either
Alex Rodriguez (207/250/322) or
Ken Griffey, Jr. (205/253/217) would be especially welcome. Griffey has been especially miserable, managing only a .368 OPS over his last 10 games.
Ottawa's
Carlos Delgado has homered in 3 consecutive games.