Game XCIII: Royals v. Tigers

The Royals have stumbled out of the gates to start the second half. And that's probably too generous.

The Kansas City offense has scored just 12 runs in their first five games of the second half and have a -16 run differential during that span.

For reference, they had a +22 mark in June, when they went 17-9 and were the second hottest team in baseball.

Not fantastic.

Tonight, they send Jason Hammel to the mound to face former Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander.

The Royals also don't have Billy Butler in their lineup to destroy Verlander, so here's to Salvador Perez continuing Country Breakfast's legacy.

Sal is one of many Royals hitters who could use a jolt, managing just two hits over his first 15 second half at-bats.

As for Hammel, most of you will remember his last start, where he took a no-hitter into the 6th inning and then promptly gave up a three-run, game tying home run to Adrian Beltre. The Royals went on to lose that game.

Kansas City hopes for a better result tonight, although some (most) fans would be okay if Hammel only went five.

I have created a handy image to let Ned Yost know which inning to pull Jason Hammel from the game tonight.

RT for awareness#RaisedRoyal pic.twitter.com/xkxrePz9MR

— Matt C (@MattfromKC) July 19, 2017

I saw this come across my Twitter feed today and got a chuckle from it. So shout-out to Matt from Twitter!

Anyways, here are tonight's Game of Thrones themed lineups.

Call the banners. It's @GameofThrones night. #GoTMLB #GoTRoyals pic.twitter.com/FlhVwLyfT9

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) July 19, 2017

Here's how we line up vs. the Royals: pic.twitter.com/5F1vrj5Uqu

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) July 19, 2017