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Is this the same series even though it's in a different ballpark? Or is it technically a second series because of the new venue despite it coming immediately after the first one?
Regardless, the Royals open up a two game stint vs. the St. Louis What High School Did You Go Toos, sometimes known as the Cardinals, at Kauffman Stadium. We're back to KC and also back to AL rules, where Billy Butler gets more than one chance to hit a baseball and where Yost is unable to do questionable double-switches late in the game.
As far as games in early June go, this is a reasonably big one. A win tonight means that the Royals win the season series against St. Louis for the first time since 2010, but more importantly, it continues the momentum gained on the 4-2 road trip to the 8 game homestand and sets up a sweep for Thursday. A sweep would see the Royals even at 30-30 and the Cards one game under at 30-31; by my calculations, the Royals haven't had a better record than the Cards this late in the season since about 1637, so that would be fun.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, however. The lineup for the teams is as follows:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The Cardinals and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Royals&src=hash">#Royals</a> field these lineups for the first of two games at The K. <a href="http://t.co/tETumFTLdU">pic.twitter.com/tETumFTLdU</a></p>— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) <a href="https://twitter.com/Royals/statuses/474286696360468481">June 4, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Adam Wainwright, or 'Waino' as you may see him dubbed, has been fantastic this year. 2.32 ERA, 2.41 FIP, 8.54 K/9, 1.79 BB/9, and averaging over 7 innings a start. Since Fernandez went down, Wainwright could be the frontrunner for the Cy Young if he keeps this up.
Facing him is the venerable Jason Vargas. I keep expecting him to implode, as the difference between his ERA (3.39) and FIP (4.28) is troubling to say the least. However, the Royals have their best possible defense on the field tonight, and since we all know nobody can hit home runs at Kauffman, he may live to pitch well another day against the Cards' underwhelming offense.