First pitch: Monday, 7:10 p.m. ET
Line: Cleveland -145, New York +135, Total: 8.5

The Yankees continue their 11-game road trip on Monday night when they begin a four-game series with the Indians.

New York is fighting to get back in the AL East race and its past series against the Twins certainly helped as the club took 3-of-4 games and sits 3.5 games behind the Orioles for the division lead. The offense came alive in the four-game set as the Yankees scored 7.3 runs per game in the three victories. They nearly allowed a big comeback on Sunday, though, as they went up 9-0 after four innings before holding on with a 9-7 win while the two teams combined for 27 hits. OF Jacoby Ellsbury (.284 BA) had a big three-run homer early in the game and has gone 13-for-41 (.317) with a homer and 8 RBI over his past 10 games. Cleveland also comes into this contest with some momentum, having won four of the past five games, while prevailing in back-to-back series versus the Dodgers and Royals. The Indians took the rubber match against Kansas City on Sunday by a score of 4-1 as Corey Kluber pitched a gem (8.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 10 K’s). Carlos Santana (.210 BA) hit his 13th home run of the season in the victory and has a small four-game hitting streak going in which he is 5-for-17 with a homer and three runs. Virtual unknown RHP Shane Greene (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will be recalled from Triple-A by New York to make a spot start in this one and will be going up against Cleveland RHP Justin Masterson (4-5, 5.16 ERA). The Yankees should be happy to be on this long road-trip right now as they are an impressive 26-20 away from the Bronx (.565, 8th-best in majors), but will have a tough task with an Indians team that is a tremendous 25-16 at home (.610, 3rd in MLB). These clubs have squared off 13 times over the past three seasons with New York absolutely owning the series, going 11-2 overall and 5-2 as the visiting team in that timeframe. On the injury front, the Yankees are healthy in terms of their offense, while Cleveland OF Michael Bourn (hamstring) was placed on the 15-day DL on Sunday.

Shane Greene will be making a spot-start for the Yankees on Monday night as scheduled starter, Vidal Nuno, was just traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. This will be Greene’s second appearance and first start for New York this year and in his first time out, he made it through just one-third of an inning while allowing three unearned runs and walking three batters with one strikeout. He has been pretty unspectacular in his 15 games (13 starts) at Triple-A this year, putting up a 4.61 ERA and 1.58 ERA while walking far too many hitters (3.5 BB/9). One thing that he has always done well is keeping the ball in the park, as he has allowed only three home runs in 66.1 frames on the mound (0.41 HR/9). Greene has also been very unlucky with batters hitting .360 BABIP. He will need to be very careful when facing OF Michael Brantley who ranks among the top-10 AL players in average (.321), RBI (57), runs (58), slugging (.511) and OPS (.896). On the other hand, OF Nick Swisher (.197 BA) has been having a career-worst season and is just 5-for-26 (.192) with 4 RBI and 10 strikeouts over his past 10 games played. The Yanks bullpen has gone 11-15 with a 3.84 ERA and is 28-for-39 (72%) when attempting to save a game. David Robertson (2.93 ERA, 21 saves) has mowed down an incredible 56 batters in just 30.2 innings of work (16.4 K/9) while going 21-for-23 in save opportunities.

Justin Masterson is really having a disappointing year after his breakout season in 2013, and can blame most of his issues on control (5.0 BB/9) while dealing with some bad luck (.339 BABIP). The walk rate is quite alarming, since in his career he is walking 3.7 batters per nine innings. But the right-hander has still continued to keep the ball in the park, giving up just six home runs in his 96 frames (0.56 HR/9). Being primarily a sinkerball pitcher, Masterson has been able to force groundballs a solid 59.3% of the time, but this has unfortunately not helped him lately since he has a 7.88 ERA in his past four outings (16 IP). This meeting against the Yankees will mark his eighth time facing them in his career, and he is 4-3 (4-4 team record) with a 3.00 ERA and 1.22 WHIP, while coming off easily his worst start against them last year. He earned a loss in the June 3, 2013 game after surrendering seven runs on nine hits (2 HR) and three walks with five strikeouts in these 6.1 frames. SS Derek Jeter just learned he will be starting his ninth career All-Star Game at shortstop and he could have a solid day at the plate Monday since he is 9-for-39 (.391) with three RBI against Masterson in his storied career. Others, such as OF Brett Gardner (3-for-18, 4 RBI, 5 K’s), 1B Mark Teixeira (2-for-16, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 4 K’s) and 3B Kelly Johnson (1-for-8, 3 K’s) have not done well in the matchup. The relievers for Cleveland have combined to go 20-10 with a strong 3.20 ERA this year while successfully saving 22-of-32 (69%) games. Closer Cody Allen (2.39 ERA, 9 saves) had a four-pitch save on Sunday and has struck out 11.2 batters per nine innings this season while struggling with control (3.7 BB/9).