Shields and Sabathia: Known Pitchers Facing Each Other In a Royals Game

It doesn't happen often for Royals fans, but tonight the Royals play a high-profile team with eyes on the playoffs and legitimate front-of-the-rotation arms on the mound. The Royals send James Shields--he of the 3.23 ERA, 3.55 FIP, and 3.65 xFIP to contradict his 3 - 6 record--to the bump to face a strangely faceless Yankees lineup that despite their relative anonymity still sport a 48 - 41 record. On their end, the Yankees will hand the ball to CC Sabathia. Sabathia has been hurt thus far by atypically high HR-rates. His HR/9 is sitting at 1.31 this season, 0.39 higher than his career 0.82 mark. His HR/FB is 14.0% right now, a full 5.0 points higher than his career 8.0 mark. To add insult to injury, his K/9 is over a full strikeout lower than his marks in 2011 and 2012. Hopefully Sabathia doesn't rectify the drop-off in Ks in one fell swoop against the discipline-deficient Royals.

It's an East Coast game kiddos. Rush home from work.