First pitch: Monday, 7:05 p.m. ET
Line: Cleveland -105, Texas -105, Total: 8.0

The Indians open up their season with a tough road matchup against the Rangers on Monday.

Cleveland was incredibly close to winning the World Series last year, as the Indians lost to the Cubs in extra innings of Game 7 in 2016. The Indians now look to get their season off to a good start, as this team will be hungry to find a way to win it all this season. Cleveland also happened to have done what it could to improve the team, as the Indians brought in slugger DH/1B Edwin Encarnacion (.263 BA, 42 HR, 127 RBI) to help strengthen their lineup. The Rangers, meanwhile, are also looking to win a World Series in 2017. Texas lost guys like OF Carlos Beltran and 1B Mitch Moreland in the offseason, but the Rangers are still loaded with young talent. They are confident that they have enough to compete and will be looking to make a statement in the Monday opener. The starters in this game are going to be RHP Corey Kluber (18-9, 3.14 ERA, 227 K in 2016) and RHP Yu Darvish (7-5, 3.41 ERA, 132 K in 2016). Darvish was limited to only 17 starts last year, as he was recovering from an injury early in the season. Kluber, meanwhile, was one of the more impressive pitchers in the entire playoffs last year. As for notable injuries, 2B Jason Kipnis (Shoulder) and OF Lonnie Chisenhall (Shoulder) are on the DL for Cleveland and 3B Adrian Beltre (Calf) is on it for Texas.

The Indians went all in with their signing of Edwin Encarnacion this summer, and he could get off to a great start on Monday. Encarnacion has had some success against Yu Darvish in his career, going 5-for-16 with two homers and four RBI versus the righty. It would be huge if he can go yard once again in this one, as Cleveland has mostly struggled against Darvish over the year. The only other guys in this lineup to homer off of Darvish in their careers are 2B Jason Kipnis (.275 BA, 23 HR, 82 RBI in 2016) and OF Lonnie Chisenhall (.286 BA, 8 HR, 57 RBI in 2016). As previously mentioned, both will be out of the lineup here. Regardless, Cleveland is going to need a stellar effort from Kluber on Monday. He struggled in two starts against Texas last year, going just 1-1 with a 4.85 ERA. He allowed three homers over those two starts, and it’d be big if he can keep the ball in the park in this one.

The Rangers have one of the more explosive offenses in the game, and they’ll need to be on in order to beat Kluber on Monday. Unfortunately for Texas, the team will be without Adrian Beltre in this one. Beltre is one of the best hitters in baseball, and he is 4-for-10 with a homer against Kluber in his career. Without him, the Rangers will be counting on guys like OF Nomar Mazara (.266 BA, 20 HR, 64 RBI in 2016) and SS Jurickson Profar (.239 BA, 5 HR, 20 RBI) for their experience against Kluber. They might not be the two best hitters on this team, but they are a combined 5-for-11 against the Indians’ ace in their careers. It’d be big if they can get it going on Monday as well. Darvish will also need to pitch a very good game in order to help his team win this one. He hasn’t faced this Indians team since 2014, but that shouldn’t matter much. When he is on, he is nearly untouchable.