CLEVELAND, Ohio -- While the Cleveland Indians have not yet announced their starting pitchers for Thursday's makeup doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays, Class AAA Columbus starter Adam Plutko's outing on Saturday certainly strengthened his candidacy for one of the spots.

Plutko tossed 7 2/3 perfect innings, striking out six on 95 pitches in an 8-0 Clippers win at Huntington Park.

"They said he was really commanding his fastball, and so far, that's been the biggest difference with him," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "His velocity is negligible maybe up a little bit. But he's really been commanding. That's good. That's exciting to see."

Plutko was 7-12 with a 5.90 earned run average in 22 starts for Columbus last season. After recovering from offseason hip surgery, this year he is 3-2 with a 2.35 ERA and 25 strikeouts with seven walks in five starts.

"It looked like maybe his hip probably wasn't helping last year," Francona said. "There's probably some velocity still left in there that he had before that maybe will come back a little bit. Which will be good."

Another potential candidate for the second starting spot Thursday is Class AA Akron's Shane Beiber, who allowed six hits and an earned run over five innings in the Rubberducks' 11-3 win against Bowie on Saturday.

Bieber also surrendered his first walk of the season in 31 innings pitched.

Both Plutko and Bieber would be on regularly scheduled four-day's rest ahead of Thursday's games against Toronto.

1. Semantics

Carlos Carrasco, who left Saturday's game after tweaking his back between the second and third innings, should be ok to make his next scheduled start on Thursday in one of the doubleheader games, Francona said.

"(Indians trainers) feel pretty strongly he'll be ok for his next start," Francona said. "That would be really big if he's ok."

Francona also clarified that Carrasco's tweak happened when he tripped on the dugout step, rather than slipping.

"No, he didn't slip, he tripped."

2. Kip gets a rest

Utility infielder Erik Gonzalez was in the starting lineup at second base Sunday, giving Jason Kipnis his first game off this season. Francona said he talked to Kipnis Saturday about taking a break, and he wanted to get Gonzalez ahead of two games on Thursday.

"It's good to get Erik in there and get a game there, especially before the doubleheader," Francona said. "And Kip's played every game. I think it just makes sense to give him a day to kinda catch up."

Kipnis is hitting .175 with six doubles and six RBIs in 97 at-bats. After clubbing six home runs in spring training, Kipnis has yet to homer in a regular season game.

3. Yonder's production

Francona said Yonder Alonso's production through 25 games has been "as advertised" when the team signed the infielder to a two-year contract in the offseason.

Alonso, who entered Sunday's game against Seattle having homered in three consecutive contests for the first time in his career, is batting .236 and leads the club with eight home runs and 19 RBIs. Meanwhile, he has made only one error in 199 defensive chances.

"He's a guy that can furnish some power and some production in the middle of the order and play good first base," Francona said. "I don't think he's a guy that we got to hit .300, but hit the ball out of the ballpark and drive some runs in."

4. It's gonna be May

Francona said reliever Zach McAllister is equipped to weather a rough first month of the season. The righty is currently working on a career-high ERA for the months of March/April (10.38).

McAllister threw 28 pitches Saturday, allowing four earned runs on five hits including a home run and one strikeout. It was the second outing in a week where he allowed five hits. He also surrendered three runs April 24 against Chicago.

In 2016, McAllister registered a career-low 0.96 ERA for March/April, and last year's 2.08 mark was the second lowest of his career for those months since he moved almost exclusively to the bullpen. But Francona said veterans like McAllister have the confidence to recover from a rough start.

"Even though it's hard, they know they can do it," Francona said. "They have something to reach back on."

McAllister might not be as anxious for the calendar to flip to May as you might think. Historically, he's posted a 4.39 ERA and 1.443 WHIP in May. Last year in eight May appearances he allowed three earned runs, including a pair of home runs and seven walks.