with closer Cody Allen reeling, will try to regroup Saturday night in the se

The Cleveland Indians Scott Schebler Jersey , cond game of a three-game series with the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.The AL Central-leading Indians have lost three in a row, the last of which was a crushing 5-4 defeat on Friday night, when Allen had the worst night of the worst season of his career.Allen came in to start the ninth inning, and in the span of four pitches gave up two home runs to turn a 4-3 Indians lead into a 5-4 Indians defeat.Article continues below ...Allen has saved 30 or more games in each of the last three years, and he is the Indians’ all-time leader with 147 saves, but this season has been a struggle. His blown save Friday was his fourth of the season, and he has given up a career-high 11 home runs.Cleveland manager Terry Francona said the Indians have not lost confidence in Allen.“I’ll sit down and talk to him,” Francona said. “We need him really bad to win. We can’t run away from him.”Allen’s 4.50 ERA is a career high Scooter Gennett Jersey , and a far cry from his 2.86 career mark.“It’s disappointing. But we’ll go look at it more to see if there’s anything,” Francona said. “It begins with his breaking ball, when he commands that everything falls into place. Right now, he feels like some nights he doesn’t have it.”Saturday night the Indians will send two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber to the mound. Kluber (16-6, 2.74) will be making his 27th start of the season, and he is coming off a winning performance against the Red Sox in his last start, on Monday, in Boston. Kluber pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing three runs and nine hits with six strikeouts and one walk in a game the Indians won 5-4.In his last five starts Kluber is 4-0 with a 2.21 ERA. His last start against Kansas City came on July 2, a 9-3 victory in which he pitched six innings George Foster Jersey , allowing three runs and seven hits, with five strikeouts and no walks.In two starts against the Royals this year, Kluber is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA. He has made 22 career starts against Kansas City and is 11-6 with a 2.90 ERA in those games.The Royals on Saturday will counter with right-hander Heath Fillmyer (1-1, 4.57). Fillmyer has split his season between Kansas City and Triple-A Omaha. In 13 starts with Omaha he was 4-5, with a 5.75 ERA.With Kansas City Fillmyer has been used as both a starter and a reliever. In seven starts he is 1-1 with a 5.29 ERA. In four relief appearances he has a 2.38 ERA and no record.He got his first major-league win on Aug. 8, when he pitched seven shutout innings against the Cubs in a 9-0 victory. Fillmyer struck out three and walked two in that game.“I didn’t have many strikeouts today,” Fillmyer said of the victory, according to MLB.com. “I didn’t want to walk them. I ended up having two unfortunate ones that didn’t end up costing us. That being said, I just let them work ahead and try to get them to get themselves out.”Saturday will be Fillmyer’s second career appearance against Cleveland. His other appearance came as a reliever, on July 4 http://www.redsfanproshop.com/authentic-tom-seaver-jersey , when he pitched three scoreless and hitless innings, with two strikeouts and one walk.One of the Cleveland hitters Fillmyer will have to pay particular attention to is Indians rookie center fielder Greg Allen, who has been one of the Indians’ hottest hitters of late.From July 15 through Aug. 21, Allen had a 14-game hitting streak, the longest by a major league rookie this season. In his last 16 games Allen is hitting .383, raising his batting average from .204 to .259.“He’s using the whole field, keeping the ball out of the air to left field, staying on the ball, and hitting line drives,” said Francona. MESA http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-b.j.-upton-jersey , Ariz. (AP) — The Oakland Athletics will take a look at Robbie Grossman as a potential leadoff man when they open spring play.The Athletics host the Seattle Mariners on Thursday as the teams get a head start on spring training games. Both teams will also open the regular season ahead of the rest of the league when they face each other in Japan on March 20-21.Oakland manager Bob Melvin wanted to get Grossman in the leadoff spot as soon as he could. The A’s signed the free agent outfielder last Friday.“It’s one of the reasons we picked him up, he has a history of getting on base,” Melvin said. “He’s a guy who’s been tough on us as well. He’ll probably get some time there, break him in quickly.”Last year, the A’s used Matthew Joyce, Marcus Semien and Nick Martini in the leadoff spot.The Athletics’ lineup for Thursday also has Stephen Piscotty batting third, something Melvin said they may experiment with. Other candidates include Khris Davis, who batted fourth most of last season, and Matt Olson, who mostly batted fifth.“You look at Stephen’s numbers and he’s certainly an option for it http://www.indiansfanproshop.com/authentic-omar-vizquel-jersey ,” Melvin said. “Last year, we were pretty consistent with our 3-4-5 spots so it may change a little bit more this year.”Third baseman Matt Chapman, who is coming off surgery on his left non-throwing shoulder, is not in Thursday’s lineup. Chapman has been taking batting practice but he’s about one week behind, Melvin said.Something else to watch as the A’s get started is how Semien and new second baseman Jurickson Profar work together. The Athletics acquired Profar from the Rangers in December.“It’s been going just fine,” Semien said. “We’ve been getting our work in on the same field every day and hitting together and taking ground balls together. He’s fitting in nicely with the group. I know he can hit and he gets to play second base every day now instead of moving around so that will be exciting to watch.”NOTES: Paul Blackburn was scheduled to start for the A’s on Thursday. If the game is canceled because of rain, Melvin said they would likely have the right-hander throw a simulated game. .. Former A’s outfielder Coco Crisp has joined the radio broadcast team as an analyst. Crisp, who played seven seasons with Oakland from 2010-16, will be in the radio booth for 33 games during the regular season. He’ll make his debut when the A’s face the San Francisco Giants on March 10 in a spring training game.