CLEVELAND -- The Indians made it through their first eight games without needing a fifth starter due to a handful of off-days. But on Monday, the club will finally round out its rotation.

Cleveland had options between Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill to take the final opening in the rotation, and the team decided to go with McKenzie to begin the series against the White Sox. Neither McKenzie nor Quantrill had the strongest of camps this spring, but it was clear that the Indians were leaning toward keeping McKenzie in the starting mix when he piggybacked Logan Allen’s last start for 3 2/3 innings, while Quantrill continued to work on shorter relief appearances.

McKenzie has only pitched in that one game so far this season, allowing one run on two hits with four walks and five strikeouts against the Royals. Because he went two years without pitching in any game at any level due to injuries and came back to the Indians last season to throw just 33 1/3 innings, the team is determined to keep a close eye on his workload, especially early in the year.

“He would be a little less [stretched out] than the other guys,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Just because of the timing of when he pitched. But we'll keep an eye on him. Some of that is by design, that he would have been last coming out of the chute just because of pitching last year after not pitching for a couple years, basically. We certainly want to keep an eye on him.”

In eight appearances (six starts) for Cleveland last year, McKenzie owned a 3.24 ERA with nine walks and 42 strikeouts with a 0.90 WHIP.

Opposite field indicates good things to come

Not only did Franmil Reyes get his team excited when he put together a two-homer game on Friday against the Tigers, but it may have been an even better indication that his bat is starting to come alive when he added an opposite-field blast to the Indians’ 11-3 victory on Saturday.

“When guys hit the ball to the opposite field with authority, they're swinging the bat right,” Francona said. “When you are strong enough or quick enough to get rewarded for hitting the ball the other way, then you're set up.”

Reports on replays

Francona was clear on Saturday night that he thought Jordan Luplow’s two-run double should have been ruled a home run. The 384-foot double hit off the top of the left-field wall and appeared to ricochet off the fence, just above the yellow line, and bounced back into play. After a replay review, it was ruled that the ball stayed in the park, and Luplow was left at second base. Although Francona didn’t receive a clear explanation behind the call just yet, he said that Major League Baseball will be following up with teams after reviews like that this season.

“I think this year, they're going to send emails like what was said,” Francona said. “Like a small report, whether it was overturned or whether they agreed. I haven't seen anything today on that.”