Analyzing the Indians 2015 Schedule

While Opening Day is still more than four months away, the Indians are already selling season tickets with Home Opener tickets going on sale soon. While some game times are yet to be announced, we now know the schedule and can give it a deeper look to see what the Indians will have in store for their 2015 championship run.

As always, the Indians will play their standard 19 games against Central Division foes with just one home and one road series against each other American League team. It will be a little later season than in most years as for the Indians, the regular season begins on April 6th in Houston and doesn’t end until October 4th at home against Boston. Here are some of the more interesting notes on the season.

• This will be the Indians first Opening Day in Houston (mostly because of their recent entrance to the American League). As usual, after Opening Day on the 6th, the two teams will have an off day on the 7th, the only day off that isn’t on a Monday or Thursday (excluding the All-Star break) for the entire season.
• Going full speed early, the Indians longest stretch without a break will be 20 games from May 12th through the 31st. This will be the first of four stretches of at least 16 straight games.
• On the other end of the spectrum, the Indians have a pair of two game series surrounded by off days. The first is against the White Sox at home starting April 14th and the second will also be at home against the Brewers on August 25th.
• As far as tough stretches go, the Indians have four road trips of at least nine games with one in April, June, August and September. Fortunately for the Tribe, all these trips will be on the East coast with only games against the Twins and White Sox as far West as the Central time zone.
• The longest home stretch of the season will be at the perfect time, against four Central foes in September. From September 10th through the 20th, the Indians will play four against the Tigers and Royals in addition to three against the White Sox, likely to determine the Central champion.
• The Indians won’t have to play the American League East much early on with the second series occurring on June 5th against Baltimore and they won’t play the Yankees until August 11th and the Red Sox until August 17th. From August 31st on, Cleveland will only play games against the Central and Eastern divisions.
• In Interleague play, the Indians will face five different teams over eight series. The first is a home series against the Cardinals on May 12th with three games in Pittsburgh, six games against the Reds (May 22nd and July 17th), four against Milwaukee (July 21st and August 25th) and a home/road four game series against the Cubs starting June 15th.
• The All-Star Game will be in Cincinnati this season with the Indians break lasting from July 13th through 16th. Whichever Indians make that game won’t have to travel far as the Indians will open up against the Reds to begin the second half.
• The Indians only multiple team West Coast road trip won’t be until after the break from July 30th through August 5th against the Athletics and Angels.
• When the Indians play the Twins on October 1st, it will be the Indians first game in October since the Wild Card game in 2013 against the Rays and when they play against the Red Sox the following day it will be the first October series start since 2012 against the White Sox. The October 4th ending will be the latest finale of a season since the Indians played the Red Sox back in 2009. For some odd scheduling reason, the Indians have only played regular season games against teams named the Sox since 2006.

Overall, the Cleveland Indians 2015 schedule looks fair, although it will not be easy. Facing the NL Central instead of the West as they did in 2014 won’t be easy, but they do get to play the toughest team, the Cardinals, at home. In addition, assuming the Indians can keep into contention until September, they will play 18 of their final 24 games including seven games against the 2014 last place finishing Twins. While this road could still be difficult, by playing seven games against both the AL Champion Royals and the AL Central Champion Tigers in September, the Indians have a completely fair chance to win the division if they can. While this is a far look into the future, the Indians will also be better off as they will have expanded rosters for what look to be intense, important matches.