Game XXXIX Thread: Royals at Cleveland

For only the fourth time all season the Royals won the first game of a series, last night. That means this game represents their fourth shot at winning a series the easy way and their fourth shot at starting a sweep. Of the previous times they won the first game of a series they won the second game only once. They’ve won two games in a row only three times previous to this, all year.

The good news for the people hoping to see a Royals victory, today, is that the currently best performing starting pitcher, Jakob Junis, will take the mound for the team. Junis has already overseen 4 of the Royals 13 victories and seen at least one good start turned to a no-decision with the help of the bullpen. In 7 goes Junis has acquired 5 quality starts and he’s pitched 7 or more innings while allowing 2 or fewer runs 4 times, already. He easily represents the Royals best chance for victory among any of the starters so far in this young season.

The bad news for people hoping to see a Royals victory, today, is that he will be opposed by Mike Clevinger. He has appeared in 6 games against the Royals including 5 starts. He has never lost to them and wields a 2.12 ERA in 29.1 innings. He made 3 starts against the team last year and held them scoreless in 2 of them. In the other he did allow 4 runs in 5 innings but still escaped with a no decision.

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