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The Kansas City Royals will attempt to avoid losing their fourth straight game on Sunday when they take on the Detroit Tigers at Kauffman Stadium.
Bruce Chen will start the game for Kansas City. Chen, who has been sidelined for most of the season with back issues, has a 7.11 ERA through 25 innings this season. He has pitched better than his ERA suggests, but he's still Bruce Chen. We know what we are getting, and it's nothing to be too excited about.
Justin Verlander will take the mound for Detroit. Verlander has continued to decline this season, seeing his FIP rise to 4.08 and his K% fall to 17.2%. He can still take the ball every fifth day and throw a lot of innings, but he's not the same pitcher he was two seasons ago.
Raul Ibanez is playing left field today, so shield your eyes. Joel Goldberg of FSKC brings us the Royals lineup:
#Royals vs RHP Verlander: Aoki 9 Infante 4 Hosmer 3 Butler DH Moose 5 Ibanez 7 Escobar 6 Dyson 8 Hayes 2 Chen 1
— Joel Goldberg (@goldbergkc) July 13, 2014
Victor Martinez is not in the Tigers lineup today; Torii Hunter will hit fifth in the designated hitter spot in his place. The Tigers official twitter account brings us their starting nine:
#Tigers lineup: Jackson 8, Kinsler 4, Cabrera 3, J. Martinez 9, Hunter DH, Castellanos 5, Avila 2, Suarez 6, Davis 7. Verlander starting.
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) July 13, 2014
Germany vs. Argentina takes place at the same time as this game. You should probably watch the soccer game, especially if this one gets out of hand.