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The Royals have been pretty awful against their fellow AL Central squads this year. Against the Tigers, Indians, White Sox, and Twins, the Royals are 7-15, a 52-win pace over 162 games. Against everybody else, the Royals are 25-17, a 96-win pace over 162 games.
While it's safe to say that the Royals aren't a 52 or 96 win team, they need to play better against their divisional opponents. They would do well to start with a win today; this win would cap a two game sweep of Cleveland, go to one game above .500, and finish a nice homestand with a 5-2 record. A loss and, well, the Royals double dip below .500 yet again.
To the mound for the Royals comes Yordano Ventura one start after his valgus flabbergastion injury. He's posted a very shiny stat line in his rookie season: 3.41 ERA, 3.46 FIP, 8.53 K/9, and 1.2fWAR. He'll be in the conversation for AL Rookie of the Year if he keeps this up, though will probably lose out to either Masahiro Tanaka or Jose Abreu. To the mound for the Indians is Trevor Bauer, third selection in the 2011 draft and acquired in a three team deal at the end of the 2012 season. He's made five starts for the Chief Wahoos this year sporting a 4.08 ERA, 4.16 FIP, 10.99 K/9, and 0.2 fWAR. He's been somewhat of a disappointment in his career, mostly due to the 5.81 BB/9 over his 13 starts, but he is only 23. In fact, the combined age of Ventura and Bauer is only three years higher than the age of the Indians' starting designated hitter.
The lineup for both teams:
Here are the lineups for this afternoon's action with the Tribe. pic.twitter.com/GnNz7u1aCM
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) June 11, 2014
Yost is batting Aoki, Infante at 1, 2 again, despite statistic and anecdotal evidence that this is a bad idea. He's not being stubborn, though, according to himself. Yost strikes me like the guy who just farted; he claims he didn't fart, but everyone knows that he did, and you just wish he would own it and stop denying the fact that the room stinks because of him.
Regardless, matinee baseball. It is Our Time to Be Royal and You Belong at the K.