The Royals pulled off their first win against Boston in over a year last night. If they win tonight, it would be their first series victory over the AL East team since they took three of four in August 2022 and their first series victory in Boston since July of 2017. The first win of that series was the last of a nine-game winning streak ahead of the 26-35 stretch that finished their season and guaranteed they would miss the playoffs for the final time with the last core group that had won them a World
Series.
Many of the players from the final game of the series have retired. Only Salvador Perez, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Christian Vázquez, and Drew Pomeranz are still playing major league ball. Ramon Torres started at third for the Royals in that game. Do you remember him? Because I sure as heck don’t. It was Devers’ fifth game as a big leaguer and he hit his second career home run off of Jason Hammel. The Royals had a four-run eighth inning to pull off the comeback win. It was capped off by a two-run Alex Gordon triple to center.
Anyway, enough nostalgia.
Today’s game will see Randy Dobnak take the mound for KC. Dobnak had his roughest outing of the season two starts ago against Miami, and some among us wondered if Dobnak Time might finally be coming to an end. But he was strong in picking up the Royals’ only victory against Toronto last week. So perhaps it can keep going for a bit longer.
Ranger Suarez will go for Boston. He has faced KC once already this year and allowed a single run in 4.1 innings while striking out 3 and walking 3. It wasn’t his best outing, but he didn’t do enough to prevent Boston from winning, either. He’s a lefty, so this will be a tough game for KC’s offense.
Lineups
Still no Jac Caglianone, despite him taking batting practice and shagging fly balls ahead of last night’s game. I guess his first 30-home run season will have to be next season.
