Royals vs. Indians, Game 20 GameThread

At 5:10pm, which is such a strange time for a game to start, the Royals and Indians will play ball tonight. Jeremy Guthrie brings his overall velocity loss compared to last year but steadily rising velocity compared to his first start this year to square off against the Indians' limp lineup. The Indians' best hitter so far by wRC+ is Ryan Raburn. However, Michael Brantley, an MVP candidate last year, is yet to hit a home run. Guthrie has given up lots of home runs so far. This could be dangerous.

On the other side, Trevor Bauer gets the start for the Indians. I wrote about Bauer last year before one of his starts against the Royals. He's a high strikeout, high walk guy (26 punchouts and 11 walks in only 19 innings so far). He is yet to give up a home run, so his ERA is a sparkling 0.95. He's increased his slider usage this year by quite a bit, and he's getting a lot more whiffs with it than usual. It seems like it's a harder, firmer slider than last year. It's so early, though, it's tough tell. He's thrown 78 of them according to Brooks Baseball. Not ready to declare anything yet, other than Bauer will come ready with boxing gloves in tow.

Lineups:

Here's the #Royals lineup as they face the Indians at 5:10 CT on @FSKansasCity, @MLBTV & @610SportsKC. #ForeverRoyal pic.twitter.com/UJ6vcV1skI

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) April 28, 2015