Blue Jays (12-10) vs Royals (13-9)
The Blue Jays, winners of four straight series, head to Kansas City to take on the surprisingly good Royals. The first game of this four game series gets underway this evening with a 7:40 ET start.
Blue Jays’ Starter
Early season success story Yusei Kikuchi heads to the mound for the Jays, riding a string of four pretty good starts where he has gotten stronger in each one. After a rough opening series loss in Tampa bay, Kikuchi has gone 5.1, 6 and 6 innings in his subsequent starts, not allowing more than a run or more than 4 hits in any of those starts. He’s also striking a lot of batters out while limiting walks. That has resulted in an overall record of 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA over 21.2 innings. His FIP of 2.24 is also great, the 6th best mark in baseball among pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched.
Royals’ Starter
The Royals will be sending out a success story of their own in 27 year old Brady Singer. Singer has had some flashes of greatness throughout his first four seasons, most notably a 3.23 ERA over 153.1 innings in 2022. But his start to this season has been even better, coming into play with a 2-0 record and a 1.54 ERA.
FIP might indicate a bit of luck though, as his 4.06 mark doesn’t offer as much hope, and sits pretty close to his career mark. He is sitting on a career high strikeout rate at 25.6%, but his walk rate has also crept up a bit compared to his last couple seasons, up to 7.8%. He has probably been a bit unlucky to have given up 3 home runs at this point, as he has done an exceptional job keeping the ball on the ground, with his 57.9% ground ball rate coming in as the fourth highest mark in baseball.
Blue Jays’ Lineup
With a good chunk of the team reportedly fighting off a sinus infection, the offense looked pretty rough yesterday. Davis Schneider and Ernie Clement offered some early firepower, but the rest of the offensive day was a pretty listless effort.
It’ll be interesting to see if anyone is held out of the lineup tonight due to the illness. Cavan Biggio and Isiah Kiner-Falefa were both off yesterday, but that may have just been a reason to get Schneider and Clement into the lineup anyway with perhaps a better matchup for them (and they did hit home runs).
I still haven’t figured out the usage plan with Alejandro Kirk and Danny Jansen. They’re maybe fully on the one on one off cycle, which would mean Kirk gets the start tonight. They’re currently not catching any specific pitcher, and there doesn’t seem to be a preference of one over the other. So unless there’s some illness, expect to see Kirk tonight.
Royals’ Lineup
The Royals have found themselves well above .500 for the first time since the beginning of May 2021, and while their pitching has been the big reason for it, the offense has done well too. As a group, they’re batting .237/.309/.401 (14th best wRC+ in baseball at 103), while their 4.91 runs/game places them 11th.
The big name in this group is obviously Bobby Witt Jr., who is hitting .300.351.578 (162 wRC+), looking like the franchise cornerstone the Royals were hoping he’d continue to be when they signed him to an 11 year, $288m deal this past offseason.
Previous (or still current?) franchise cornerstone Salvador Perez is looking like his four time Silver Slugger self out there this year, leading the AL in RBI with 22 thanks to a very strong .333/.395/.590 (180 wRC+). The somehow still only 34 year old is in the second last year of his 4 year, $82m extension he signed prior to the 2022 season. He seems likely to retire a Royal though, so expect another extension for him in the coming years.
Salvy and Witt have a decent supporting cast this year, as Vinnie Pasquantino (152 wRC+), Nelson Velázquez (125) and MJ Melendez (121) are all having strong seasons.
Yesterday’s Heroes
Andy Pages went 2-4 with a home run and a double, driving in 3 runs to take home the Monster Bat award. Pages was the final nail in the coffin of the Mets yesterday, as he led the Dodgers to the 10-0 win.
Cal Quantrill threw 6 shutout innings in the second game of the Mariners/Rockies double header. That game went to extras in a 0-0 tie, only for the Rockies to finally come out of top with the 2-1 win. Quantrill for his part, throwing 6 shutout innings in a tie game, gets the WPA King trophy with a .405 mark.
Going back to the Dodgers-Mets blowout, the Dodgers coasted to victory on the pitching side of things thanks to a tremendous effort by Tyler Glasnow. Glasnow threw 8 shutout innings, allowing just a walk and 7 hits while striking out 10 to take home the Pitcher of the Day award.
Find the Link
Find the link between Brady Singer and Padres’ minor league shortstop Mason McCoy.