For the second game in a row, the Royals won with ninth-inning runs. Tonight, perhaps they can make things a little bit easier on those of us who already suffer from various heart, blood pressure, or anxiety diseases.
Michael Wacha will take the mound for KC. His last start, against Texas, didn’t go so great. He allowed 6 runs in only 5 innings. He didn’t face the Twins in their earlier series this year, but he faced them three times last year. Unfortunately, those numbers weren’t great, either. He pitched
a total of 16 innings and allowed 7 runs with 6 walks and only 10 strikeouts. His final start wasn’t bad, though, allowing only a single run in 5.2 innings.
He will be countered by Zebby Matthews of the Twins. Zebby has a career 5.71 ERA, and he’s having his best big league season yet with a 4.63 ERA, though he’s giving up almost 2 home runs per 9 innings. He spent the beginning of the season in the minors, but returned to the bigs in May and will be making his sixth start tonight.
Zebby throws six pitches, and 5 of them at least 8% of the time. It all comes down to his slider, though, the only truly effective pitch he has to offer. That single pitch has a 41.7% chase rate and 41% whiff rate, both of which are elite. Oddly, he still chooses to throw it only 18.1% of the time, but throws his four-seam fastball more than twice as often at 39.9% of the time. The fastball is almost never missed when swung at, and it can get hit hard. So the Royals should probably be focusing there.
Lineups
The Royals will continue using Carter Jensen in the leadoff spot. He hasn’t been particularly good there, but the team has actually been scoring runs since the adjustment was made. Maikel Garcia is still out of the starting lineup. He pinch hit last night, but didn’t look great doing it and once he took the walk, he was immediately lifted for a pinch runner.
As for the Twins, they have a lineup full of nobodies and Royal killers. Byron Buxton is good against everyone but saves some of his best work for KC. Kody Clemens has hit more than 1/5 of his career home runs against KC including two last night. Luke Keaschall looked like he was going to be a super star late last summer against KC but has been something less than mediocre to start the year. Austin Martin would be a below-average hitter if he hadn’t been able face the Royals a few times.
Still, when your lineup has Orlando Arcia batting fifth, it’s not a good lineup. Hopefully Michael Wacha will make it look just that easy tonight.
