Royals V. Blue Jays: Game LXXXV Thread

Last week was not fun. The Royals were swept by Houston and lost two of the first three to the Twins, including the most depressing loss of the season.

Since then, things have gone about as well as you can hope, soul-crushing injuries aside. After securing the fourth game to split the Twins series, Kansas City swept the sliding Rays, and looked toward hosting the Blue Jays, who had gone 7-12 since June 27th.

Well, you can make it 7-13 after last night's gem, and this afternoon the Royals look to clinch another series victory and match their longest winning streak of the season at seven games, which was way back in April to open the season. And we have one man to thank for the good fortune:

Since pete_clarf went on vacation, the Royals have won seven of eight. Just saying.

Chris Young goes for Kansas City, which frightens me a bit, but at least it is a home game. He's 7-4 with a 2.89 ERA, but the shadow of the axe hangs over every high, 86mph fastball he throws. At some point I am going to try and not doubt him, but a 4.05 FIP and .211 BABIP (even though his career BABIP is .248) makes it really hard, particularly against the best offense in baseball.

The Blue Jays will send Mark Buehrle to the mound, so at least the game should be neatly wrapped up by 3:30 or so. He is 9-5 with a 3.38 ERA. He's got a 4.64 K/9 rate which, against a team that doesn't strike out much, can either be a positive or a negative. He kind of wants you to swing, I guess, right? Kansas City will oblige.

If Buehrle wins today, it will be his fifteenth consecutive season of ten or more wins. If Chris Young wins, he will tie Edinson Volquez for the team lead with eight victories, because pitcher wins are a reasonably relevant statistic. And now you know the two uses for italics.