Today is my penultimate game thread for the 2026 MLB Regular season. You might have noticed I’ve been using that word a lot lately. You’ve probably guessed it’s my favorite word. You’re right.
Last time we were together, Noah Cameron was performing his penultimate start to the season. Today is the ultimate. It would be swell if he performed that colloquially as well as definitionally and did something crazy like pitch a no-hitter. The Guardians clinched a playoff berth last night. Perhaps they’re
too hungover to hit? They don’t add asterisks for that, though, so Cameron should try to take advantage.
The Guardians are still battling for an opportunity to win the division rather than simply to make a playoff berth. They currently lead the White Sox by a single game in the standings, but the White Sox hold the tiebreaker, so all it will take is for Chicago to win a single game more than the Guardians do this weekend for them to claim the division crown. I’m hoping the Royals sweep the Guardians and make it easy for them. Still, the point I’m taking forever to get to is that Gavin Williams gets the start for Cleveland rather than preparing himself for a playoff series, because if the Guardians can hold out, they won’t have to play in the Wild Card series anyway.
By the numbers, Gavin has been terrific this year for Cleveland. Eating innings with style. If you dig a little deeper, you find that he is nearly elite at generating both chase and whiffs. One interesting note to me is that he has universally struggled a bit when hitters actually make contact with any of his pitches. He mixes up his pitches well, so rather than hunt a particular pitch, the Royals might be best served just trying to make contact with whatever he throws and hope for the best.
Williams has faced the Royals twice this year. In their first series, he tossed 5.2 innings of 1-run ball and struck out 8. But he also walked 5, which contributed to the short outing. He took the loss in their second meeting during the second series between the two teams, giving up 5 runs in 6 innings, though he only walked 2 and struck out 7. The Royals managed to sequence really well in that game, scoring those five runs on only eight hits with a pair of doubles and a pair of dingers.
Lineups
It’s kind of funny that Isaac Collins got left out of tonight’s lineup. He’s been unplayably bad for a bit now, but the last time the Royals faced Williams, he had a home run and a double in a 3-for-3 effort. Still, this is probably the best lineup the Royals can put together with their current roster. You could argue that Michael Massey should be above Salvador Perez, or that Nick Loftin should start in left and shift John Rave to center to bench Kyle Isbel. That would all be nitpicking, though. Hopefully the Royals can bring Denny Matthews a win for his 8000th broadcast!
