Royals (17-12) vs Blue Jays (14-15)
The Blue Jays welcome the Royals into Toronto, looking to turn around the series loss the Royals handed them last week in Kansas City. Tonight’s game is scheduled to get underway at the typical 7:07 ET start.
Blue Jays’ Starter
Yariel Rodríguez is set to make his fourth start of the season, coming into play with a 0-1 record and a 3.86 ERA. Due to a workload limit, he has yet to register an out in the 5th inning, which also means he has yet to qualify for a win under MLB’s archaic rules, despite being the pitcher who was on the mound when the Jays took the lead for good in each of his first two starts.
His last start was the roughest of the three, which just so happened to be against this same Royals squad. He gave up 3 runs on 6 hits, walking 2 and striking out just 2. It was the first time he didn’t allow a home run though, if we’re looking for positives. By length of outing, this was his longest. After going 3.2 innings in his first outing and 4.0 in his second, he also went 4.0 in this one, but he did come back out for the 5th inning, but he gave up 3 singles to lead off the inning and was taken out. But the efficiency in this game was also a good sign, as he threw 83 pitches to get through 4 innings in his second game, and only needed 60 to get through his first 4 innings last week.
Royals’ Starter
The Royals lost Alec Marsh last week when an Addison Barger line drive struck him in the elbow. Marsh has since been put on the 15-day IL, and the Royals have called up Jonathan Bowlan to take his place in the rotation and make the start tonight. This will be Bowlan’s third big league appearance, and first of the year.
Bowlan features predominantly a fastball and a slider, which he’ll throw pretty much exclusively. He does have a changeup and a curveball, neither of which are pitches he has had much luck with in his short stint in the Majors. This suggests that he will have more troubles with lefty batters, and his splits from the last couple years in the Minors matches that assumption.
Blue Jays’ Lineup
With Bowlan’s profile, expect to see a few lefties in the lineup tonight. Daulton Varsho is playing every day for the foreseeable future, so he’s already there. Cavan Biggio has been getting most starts against righties anyway. Addison Barger likely gets the opportunity to hunt for his first career hit. Daniel Vogelbach is the only other lefty on the team at the moment, but I’m not sure they’d want to bench Justin Turner at this point.
Alejandro Kirk hit his first home run of the year yesterday, and had a few other well hit balls on his way to a perfect 3-3 day at the plate. With Danny Jansen now back, Kirk has been getting some much needed rest, but until yesterday it wasn’t really paying dividends. His second inning home run ended an 0-11 streak.
With any luck, today will mark the end of the Jays’ abysmal streak of not scoring much. They have now played 20 games without scoring more than 5 runs, yet somehow at least are 10-10 in that stretch. The pitching is carrying this team, but the offense is capable doing much better.
Royals’ Lineup
The Royals are still fielding the same group that took 3 of 4 from the Jays last week, and just like last week, it’ll be the top of the lineup that’s likely to do the damage. Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez drove in 9 of the Royals’ 11 runs in the series and accounted for all 5 stolen bases.
Adam Frazier and Kyle Isbel did a good job from the bottom half of the order last week as well, picking up a few extra base hits and setting up the top of the order.
Vinnie Pasquantino was the lone top of the order bat that didn’t live up to the hype last week, picking up just 1 hit in his 14 PA. He did at least walk 3 times though.
Yesterday’s Heroes
Nick Senzel went 2-6 with a pair of home runs, driving in 5 runs to earn the Monster Bat award. His big day helped pace the Nationals’ offence, as they took down the Marlins 12-9.
Kyle McCann hit a 2-run home run off closer Craig Kimbrel in the top of the 9th inning, turning a 6-5 deficit into a 7-6 lead. The A’s would hold on to that lead, beating the Red Sox. McCann was the hero, taking home the WPA King trophy with a .523 mark in the game.
Erick Fedde tried to go the distance yesterday, but after a single and a double brought the tying run to the plate, his night was done after 8.1 great innings. His final Pitcher of the Day line was 8.1 innings, 2 runs on 7 hits and no walks, with 9 strikeouts. The bullpen preserved the win, and the White Sox took the sweep of the Rays with a 4-2 win.
Find the Link
Find the link between Bobby Witt Jr. and Armando Gallaraga.