Game CLVII Open Thread - Kansas City vs. Cleveland

Flame throwers Yordano Ventura and Danny Salazar will match wits and scorch wood at The Jake this evening.

With the hardest-throwing starter in the Majors facing off against the 11th-hardest, parents across the Midwest are being advised to shield their children's eyes from the high velocities shown on-screen as such breakneck speeds are known to damage the underdeveloped eyes of our nation's youth.

Just six games remain on the Royals' schedule, and the race for both the AL Central and the Wild Card spots are very much up in the air. The Royals trail the Tigers by one game in the Central, and the A's by one game for the top Wild Card spot with the Mariners two games back.

Ventura will attempt to the thwart the Racists every chance he gets. After all, this.

Salazar has been less consistent than Ventura. Unfortunately for the Royals, the mercurial hurler has been pretty solid since rejoining the Racists' rotation. Over 64.2 IP since his reinsertion, he's struck out 65, walked 15, and given up three or fewer runs in all but two of his eleven starts. In this stretch, he's maintained a 3.06 ERA, 2.91 FIP, and 3.21 xFIP.

This game is a WAR.