Indians vs Blue Jays Line-Ups for Game 1 of the ALCS

While the Indians got some bad news today with Trevor Bauer getting pushed back from game two to game three with a laceration on his pinky, it’s still on with the show for the rest of the guys. Game one begins at 8:08 PM on TBS and will feature the pitching match-up of Corey Kluber and Marco Estrada. With the right handed 2016 All-Star on the mound for the Blue Jays, Terry Francona will counter with his lefty heavy line-up.

This is nothing new as it is the same line-up that Francona set out in games one and three against Boston. The only pure right on right match-ups will be Napoli and Perez with Brandon Guyer, Yan Gomes and Rajai Davis on the bench should John Gibbons try to turn things around. If there are any complaints, they are the same old ones. These are things like Napoli playing first over Santana and Crisp playing against right handers over Guyer, but so far, Francona has been just about perfect in all his decision making, so it’s not the time to question him now.

The Blue Jays present a much less platoon heavy line-up with only Carrera and Saunders hitting from the left side. They do have Dalton Pompey, Ryan Goins and Dioner Navarro on the bench, but Gibbons prefers to start his regulars and, outside of Martin, most of them hit just fine against right handers.

Against Kluber in particular, none have more than 6 at bats and the most successful hitters have been the left handed Saunders and the right handed Martin. Since the sample sizes are so small, they don’t mean much of anything and with everything on the line, things will certainly be different this time around.