Royals V. Rangers: Game LIII Thread

When your team is 2-8 in your last ten games, it can be difficult to locate the bright spot. Offensively speaking, I am hard pressed to find one. The bullpen has been spotty. Well, spottier. The starting pitching has been, well, middling, to mediocre.

2-8 feels like an eternity, because it comes off of a five game winning streak and an 8-2 stretch. But baseball is baseball. Things go wrong. You can't explain it, you can't predict it. It just happens. Yes, I lifted that from Twister. Because the current in baseball seasons is about as predictable as summer storms and the quality of Bill Paxton films.

Yordano Ventura pitches for the Royals this afternoon. He's been great lately. He's gone seven innings in each of his last four starts with a 3.21 ERA and 8.04 K/9. Hopefully he can repeat that success against the Rangers, who are suddenly not that bad anymore.

Wandy Rodriguez starts for Texas. He's a guy the team was rumored to be interested in back in 2012/2013. It is good that they didn't; he threw just 89.1 innings in 2013 and 2014 combined. This year, he's back to being pretty good, with a 3.55 ERA over eight starts, though he's been a bit lucky with a .275 BABIP and a 3.92 FIP.

They say hope springs eternal, but I'm guessing they weren't Royals fans.

LINEUPS

The @Royals lineup: Escobar SS Moustakas 3B Cain CF Hosmer 1B Morales DH Gordon LF Perez C Colon 2B Dyson RF Ventura P #TEXvsKC #MLBonFS1

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 6, 2015

The @Rangers lineup: DeShields LF Choo RF Fielder DH Moreland 1B Gallo 3B Andrus SS Martin CF Corporan C Alberto 2B Rodriguez P #TEXvsKC

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 6, 2015