- Joined
- Oct 3, 2019
- Messages
- 9,846
- Reaction score
- 28,189
- Points
- 135
After taking a beating at the hands of the Mariners and Orioles the Guardians hit the road to Kansas City for a three-games series against the 55-80 Royals. The Guardians hold a 6-4 season edge against the Royals with nine games to play. The Royals have been much better at home (32-37) while the Guardians are 35-34 on the road. Two evenly matched teams when playing in KC.
The Royals made some trades at the deadline, most notably sending Andrew Benintendi (.320/.785) to the Yankees and Whit Merrifield to the Jays. It didn’t seem to affect them much as they are 15-18 since the deadline, averaging just over four runs per game.
The Royals are hitting .232/.597 against Cleveland pitching this year and averaging exactly 3.0 runs per game. However, Benintendi hit .441/1.072 against us and he is thankfully on a team we don’t have to play the rest of the season. The Royals have three home runs against the Guardians in 10 games and all three of those home runs have been traded.
Nicky Lopez has been a thorn in our side, hitting .357/.848, and he’s unfortunately still on the team.
The Royals’ bullpen ranks dead last in both ERA and xFIP so the key in this series will be to drive up pitch counts and get to the bullpen by the 6th inning if not sooner.
That won’t be easy tonight with Brady Singer (7-4, 3.33) starting and the Guardians likely to be hung over from an early morning night flight due to yesterday’s rain delay. Singer went 7 innings allowing 3 runs against the G’s on July 8. His ERA for the last two months is an excellent 2.53. Get ready for another frustrating night watching the G’s flail away.
The key is to get on base; batters are hitting .211/.593 with nobody on but that jumps to .298/.820 when he goes to the stretch. But with RISP his BAA is .192 so he is good at getting out of jams. The G’s need to foul off pitches and drive up his pitch count and get to the bullpen as early as possible. The third time through the order opponents are hitting .321/.864 against him. It’s all about getting on base and driving up his pitch count.
Tristan McKenzie will try to break the Guardians’ six-game losing streak. On July 9 he pitched six shutout innings against the Royals. His ERA is 2.24 since July 1. Nicky Lopez is 5-for-16 against him and Hunter Dozier is 4-for-14 with 4 RBIs.
This should be another close, low scoring game as Singer is an excellent starter and has been very good the last two months, plus the Guardians will be wiped out from traveling. McKenzie has been even better and the Royals are missing their best hitter. However, they have some guys like Dozier, Witt, and Perez who can take a mistake deep so all it takes is one or two bad pitches to lose a game if you don't score.
Tomorrow night Bieber goes against lefty Kris Bubic (2-10, 5.47) and Wednesday’s starters have not been announced for either team.
The Twins are in New York for four games against the Yankees this week so hopefully we can separate from them a bit before going to Minnesota next weekend. That will be a huge series plus the Browns have their opener. Big, big sports weekend. With a day off Thursday the starters in Minnesota should be Quantrill, McKenzie, and Bieber.
Those pesky White Sox are on the west coast for three games against the Mariners and four against Oakland. Hopefully the Mariners treat them the way they treated us and we can also get a little help from the A’s.
The Royals made some trades at the deadline, most notably sending Andrew Benintendi (.320/.785) to the Yankees and Whit Merrifield to the Jays. It didn’t seem to affect them much as they are 15-18 since the deadline, averaging just over four runs per game.
The Royals are hitting .232/.597 against Cleveland pitching this year and averaging exactly 3.0 runs per game. However, Benintendi hit .441/1.072 against us and he is thankfully on a team we don’t have to play the rest of the season. The Royals have three home runs against the Guardians in 10 games and all three of those home runs have been traded.
Nicky Lopez has been a thorn in our side, hitting .357/.848, and he’s unfortunately still on the team.
The Royals’ bullpen ranks dead last in both ERA and xFIP so the key in this series will be to drive up pitch counts and get to the bullpen by the 6th inning if not sooner.
That won’t be easy tonight with Brady Singer (7-4, 3.33) starting and the Guardians likely to be hung over from an early morning night flight due to yesterday’s rain delay. Singer went 7 innings allowing 3 runs against the G’s on July 8. His ERA for the last two months is an excellent 2.53. Get ready for another frustrating night watching the G’s flail away.
The key is to get on base; batters are hitting .211/.593 with nobody on but that jumps to .298/.820 when he goes to the stretch. But with RISP his BAA is .192 so he is good at getting out of jams. The G’s need to foul off pitches and drive up his pitch count and get to the bullpen as early as possible. The third time through the order opponents are hitting .321/.864 against him. It’s all about getting on base and driving up his pitch count.
Tristan McKenzie will try to break the Guardians’ six-game losing streak. On July 9 he pitched six shutout innings against the Royals. His ERA is 2.24 since July 1. Nicky Lopez is 5-for-16 against him and Hunter Dozier is 4-for-14 with 4 RBIs.
This should be another close, low scoring game as Singer is an excellent starter and has been very good the last two months, plus the Guardians will be wiped out from traveling. McKenzie has been even better and the Royals are missing their best hitter. However, they have some guys like Dozier, Witt, and Perez who can take a mistake deep so all it takes is one or two bad pitches to lose a game if you don't score.
Tomorrow night Bieber goes against lefty Kris Bubic (2-10, 5.47) and Wednesday’s starters have not been announced for either team.
The Twins are in New York for four games against the Yankees this week so hopefully we can separate from them a bit before going to Minnesota next weekend. That will be a huge series plus the Browns have their opener. Big, big sports weekend. With a day off Thursday the starters in Minnesota should be Quantrill, McKenzie, and Bieber.
Those pesky White Sox are on the west coast for three games against the Mariners and four against Oakland. Hopefully the Mariners treat them the way they treated us and we can also get a little help from the A’s.
