Royals vs. Astros, Game 75 Game Thread

The Royals' offense has been pretty punchless in this series. After scoring lots of runs against the Athletics, the Royals have scored only one run in this series. They faced ace Dallas Keuchel last night, and they just scattered about a few hits. He's tough, but the Royals have to do something against the best. We saw what happens when Salvador Perez is the only guy to get a significant hit against the other team's ace last year in the World Series.

Tonight the Royals face rookie Vincent Velasquez, who has not pitched above AA, at which he has thrown only 26.1 innings. Velasquez appears to be a high-walk, high-strikeout type guy. He has a miniscule 21.2 percent ground ball rate, which is more extreme fly-ball side than Chris Young (only by a little). He's thrown only 19.1 MLB innings, though. Small sample size there.

Velasquez is a three-pitch pitcher with a four-seam fastball, a changeup, and a curveball. He barely uses the changeup against righties. Early in the count against both lefties and righties, Velasquez focuses on his heater to the extreme. He throws it pretty hard, averaging 95.2 mph according to Brooks Baseball. The Royals, as usual, will probably be aggressive early in the count. The fastball is coming.

Edinson Volquez starts for the Royals. Volquez threw a nice game against Oakland last time out. Let's see if he can repeat it while the Royals get the offense going against a moderately wild rookie fireballer.

Edinson Volquez gets the nod for #Royals at 7:10 CT on @FSKansasCity, @MLBTV, & @610SportsKC. http://t.co/hWjLnEKbjM pic.twitter.com/gvw1B7D7us

— #VoteRoyals (@Royals) July 1, 2015