Game LXX Open Thread - The Royals of Kansas City versus the Tigers of Detroit

So here we are. Set to watch Yordano Ventura and the Kansas City Royals face off against reigning Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer and the barely first-place Detroit Tigers.

With a mere half-game buffer separating the Royals from the Tigers, the Royals phenom heads into the lion's tiger's den with the objective of striking them down. His weapon--other than the obvious hatred of racism, which I sadly find myself unable to incorporate into this piece despite racking my brain for a way to wedge it in there--is fire. If we learned anything from Life of Pi, it's that all tigers are afraid of fire.

Or maybe it's that they're atheists.

Or maybe it was that they don't eat Indian boys on dinghies.

Basically, we get to watch and see if Yordano Ventura can kill Tigers with hot balls.

The opposing pitcher--a Tiger twice over (Detroit and Mizzou) in the form of Max Scherzer--also hurls hot balls. While not a front-runner for the AL Cy Young Award this year, Scherzer has shown little drop-off from his performance last year. His K% is down slightly (-1.02%). His BB% is up slightly (+0.6%). His ERA is a little higher (+0.15). His FIP, xFIP, and SIERA are all up about 0.20 points. But he's still basically the same Max Scherzer that he's been for the Tigers.

We like to joke about a match-up being one for the ages, but for Royals fans with very little to look back fondly upon, this game, one in June with first place on the line and a Royals phenom facing the reigning AL Cy Young winner this is about as close to a match-up for the ages as we know.

This is gonna be a WAR.

(The song is as NSFW as Yordano Ventura's repertoire)