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The Royals have won three in a row, and if there is anything I've learned from this season, its that anytime we start to get our hopes up, we should prepare for an immediate disappointment. In other words, I'm expecting a five-game losing streak.
The Royals have snuck in front of the Indians in the American League Central Division and in the race for the second Wild Card, but still stand two games back of the Yankees and Blue Jays. Winning tonight can start to put some distance between them and the Indians, and with the Jays and Yankees playing each other, the Royals can gain a game on one of them with a win.
Josh Tomlin goes for the Indians tonight. He began the year as a "pitch to contact" guy with less then 5 strikeouts per nine innings, but after Tommy John surgery last year, has a better strikeout ratio this year than Yordano Ventura. Tomlin has always been a good command guy, and has kept that up this year with just 1.1 walks per nine innings. Tomlin has the fifth best strikeout-to-walk ratio among all starting pitchers in baseball, yet that hasn't translated into a ton of success as he has a disappointing 4.48 ERA. Tomlin can be home run prone, but that shouldn't matter as the Royals have hit just two home runs in their last ten games.
#Royals lineup vs. Tomlin: Cain RF Infante 2B Gordon LF Perez C Moustakas 3B Ibanez 1B Aoki DH Escobar SS Dyson CF Ventura P
— David Lesky (@DBLesky) July 25, 2014
Raul Ibanez at first base again. Worked so well last night.
Hey, let's THROW FIRE!