The Royals have been rolling through their last two series, and they’ll try to keep that momentum going when the Tigers arrive in town. Kansas City has gone 6-1 over that stretch, and the offense has done plenty of the heavy lifting with timely production and a couple of wild comebacks.
The opener sets up as the most intriguing matchup of the three. Noah Cameron gets the ball for Kansas City against Troy Melton, and both pitchers have been in strong form.
Cameron enters with a 7-8 record and a 4.16 ERA, but the recent run has been much sharper: a 1.19 ERA over his last stretch, with at least seven innings in four of his last five outings. That run started with a bulk relief appearance against the Tigers on July 24, the same day he began calling his own games.
Since then, he has been highly effective aside from one rough night against the Dodgers, when he gave up four runs.
Melton has been every bit as difficult to solve, and for a longer span. The Tigers right-hander is 7-1 with a 1.49 ERA overall, and since the start of July he has posted a 1.16 ERA across eight starts.
In that stretch, he has allowed runs in only three outings, including the July 23 game when the Royals scored three times against him. Kansas City also gets a small bit of encouragement from Melton’s most recent start, which was his worst of the run: against the White Sox, he lasted 4.1 innings, gave up nine hits and three runs, walked one, and struck out four.
Kansas City’s offense has been fueled in part by Bobby Witt Jr., who has looked very much like himself since returning from the IL on August 4 because of lower back tightness. Over his last 16 games, he is slashing .328/.431/.541 with an OPS of .972 and a wRC+ of 168.
He has also piled up seven extra-base hits - four doubles and three home runs - while walking at a 13.9% clip and scoring 20 runs. The one blemish in that stretch is the RBI total, which sits at nine.
Vinnie Pasquantino has also started to heat up after coming off the IL with wrist soreness before the opening game against the Athletics. He went 1-for-4 in that first game, then finished the series 7-for-17 with a home run and two doubles.
He also avoided a strikeout and drew two walks. Against Detroit, Pasquantino has a career OPS of .786, and he has a solid track record against the three probable starters.
For a season he would probably rather forget, finishing strong would mean a lot for both him and the Royals.
The rest of the rotation lines up with Michael Wacha against Drew Anderson in Game 2, and Daniel Lynch IV against Framber Valdez in Game 3. Wacha is 6-8 with a 3.59 ERA, Anderson is 4-4 with a 4.01 ERA, Lynch is 4-4 with a 2.83 ERA, and Valdez is 8-8 with a 4.35 ERA.
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Royals Suddenly Have A New Infield Problem To Solve
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Matthew Lugo was brought up from Omaha to fill Garcias roster spot, while the Royals also made a pitching shuffle by optioning Carlos Durn and recalling Jose Cuas. For a club trying to stay flexible, the moves make sense on paper, but Garcias absence leaves another question hanging over how Kansas City will piece together the infield in the near term. [Read more 🡒]