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A pair of rookies face off in the Kansas City Royals second-to-last game of the season against the Chicago White Sox.
Yordano Ventura will start the game for the Royals. Ventura's stuff has looked electric in his first two starts, and he owns a shiny 1.59 ERA over 11 2/3 innings. The right-hander is striking out a respectable 20.5% of the batters' he's facing, but has issued walks to 11.4%. His average fastball velocity has been 97-mph, but his results would likely be better with a mid-90's fastball and better command.
Pretty standard lineup for the Royals today, with Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star bringing us the batting order:
#Royals vs. CWS RHP Johnson: Gordon 7, Bonifacio 4, Hosmer 3, Butler DH, Perez 2, Moustakas 5, Lough 9, Escobar 6, Dyson 8 and Ventura 1.
— Bob Dutton (@Royals_Report) September 28, 2013
Erik Johnson will take the mound for the White Sox. This is Johnson's first start against the Royals, and I don't know anything about him, so I will let John Sickels of Minor League Ball do a guest verse:
Johnson is a big guy at 6-3, 235 pounds, a right-handed hitter and thrower, born December 30, 1989. He had control problems in college due to balky mechanics, but the Sox smoothed his delivery out and it is much more consistent now. As a result, his command took a large step forward. Stuff was never the problem: he can hit 96 MPH, works consistently at 91-94, and locates the fastball well. He has a full array of secondary pitches, featuring an above-average slider, a solid curveball, and a change-up that has greatly improved over the last two years.
The right-hander will need to miss more bats, as his current 13.5% K% is Guthrian.
Seeing Avisail Garcia's name in the Chicago lineup makes me angry about how the Detroit Tigers managed to snag Jose Iglesias. The White Sox official Twitter account brings us their batting order:
Tonight's starting lineups. pic.twitter.com/Ud4VA71aMS
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) September 28, 2013
Tonight's game is on FSKC.
Song of the Day: Switchfoot - More Than Fine
Switchfoot are a pretty standard Christian Rock band. Their album The Beautiful Letdown had a pair of overplayed radio hits, but is really impressive effort.