Surprising Tribe to take on Twins

If you guessed that the Cleveland Indians would own the best record in baseball through the first three weeks of this season, congratulate yourself with a nice cold one.

This edition of the Tribe was not expected to contend for much of anything, again, this season. But through Wednesday there they sit, atop the American League Central. This weekend the Indians take their good start to Minneapolis for a three-game series with the two-time defending Central champion Minnesota Twins at Target Field, starting Friday night (8:10 pm Eastern).

Also Friday the new wards of MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, visit Wrigley Field for the first of three games with the Cubs (2:20 Eastern, WGN); the AL East-leading New York Yankees head down to Baltimore to open a three-game series with the up-and-down Orioles (7 Eastern); the Florida Marlins, winners of five of their last six games, host the NL West-leading Rockies for the first of three (7:10 Eastern); and the Atlanta Braves, struggling a bit in this early going, are on the Left Coast for the first of three games with the World Series champion San Francisco Giants (10:15 Eastern).

After winning 69 games last year Cleveland entered this season as a +2,200 longshot at oddsmaker.ag to win the AL Central. But thanks to an offense that's averaging better than five runs per game and a pitching staff that leads the majors in quality starts, the Indians have won 13 of their first 18 games, and lead the Central by two games over second-place Kansas City. Cleveland has taken two of the first three games of a four-game series in Kansas City, getting another winning performance from SP Justin Masterson (who's now 4-0) on Wednesday night on its way to a 7-5 victory.

Minnesota, meanwhile, began this season getting +150 to win the AL Central again. However, the injury bug has gotten hold of the Twins, who are now playing without Joe Mauer and their starting second baseman. And while Justin Morneau is back in the lineup, following that long concussion-related absence, he's hitting just .208 and has three RBI. Consequently, Minnesota has scored fewer runs than anybody in baseball, and they haven't won a series yet this season. The Twins won the opener of a four-game series in Baltimore on Monday night, but have lost the last two. So Minnesota sits in last place in the Central at 6-12, seven games back already of the Indians.

Cleveland is slated to throw Fausto Carmona on Friday night, Carlos Carrasco on Saturday afternoon (1:10 Eastern), and Jeanmar Gomez on Sunday (2:10 Eastern), while Minnesota is expected to counter with Brian Duensing, Francisco Liriano, and Carl Pavano.

This is the first meeting this season between these two teams. Last year the Twins took the season series from the Indians 12 games to six, with the totals going 7-10-1 as the games averaged 8.3 runs per contest.