The 20-27 Royals have fallen back into a tie with the Detroit Tigers for last place in the AL Central. The Royals managed to blank the Cardinals in a 2-0 victory yesterday, but that was after six straight losses. This team seems to ping-pong from elation to despair a lot. Right now, there’s a little too much despair.
Hopefully a return to the K can add some hope. After that miserable road trip, the Royals welcome the similarly-despondent 19-27 Boston Red Sox to Kansas City. The Red Sox are also recent
losers, having dropped 2 of 3 games against each of the Braves, Phillies, and Rays over the past week+.
Just a few weeks ago, the Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora and a whole bunch of his staff. Wilyer Abreu, Willson Contreras, and Ceddanne Rafaela are about the only hitters having a good season for the Red Sox. Offseason trade target Jarren Duran has scuffled pretty badly to a .183/.243/.305 line. Trevor Story similarly struggled before recently being put on the IL. They’ve had some decent starting pitching but their star – Garrett Crochet – pitched to a 6.30 ERA before also being put on the IL.
The Royals have their own issues, of course. Salvador Perez and Vinnie Pasquantino are similarly struggling in the middle of the lineup. Cole Ragans is on the IL. The bullpen is suspect.
The Royals will put Seth Lugo on the mound to start. He’s somewhat returned to form with a 3.76 ERA, but there are a lot of mixed signals there. His strikeout rate is stable compared to prior years but his walk rate is up. His BABIP is wayyyy up. The key thing is that he has limited home runs – he has somehow given up only 1 homer all season. That will paper over a lot of issues but I doubt that is sustainable.
The Red Sox start Sonny Gray, who is in the final year of a 3/$76M contract. In his older age (Gray is 36), he’s pivoted to being Mark Buehrle. Very low strikeout rate, low walk rate, low homers. Limits damage on contact. Gray has managed a 3.18 ERA doing this. It’s unprecedented for Sonny – this would be the lowest strikeout rate of his career, by a lot.
A stoppable force meets a movable object. Let’s see which team blinks and scurries away.
Keep in mind the original game time was 6:40pm US Central. Apparently because of the possibility of bad weather, the game has been moved up to 6:10pm US Central. You can watch on Royals.tv or listen on 96.5 The Fan or the Royals Radio Network.
Lineups:
