Gamethread XXI - Royals at Yankees

The Royals are still in New York and they’re playing more baseball today. Until now I hadn’t had a chance to see what the Yankees were doing; I had heard they had a lot of injuries but hadn’t witnessed what that did to their lineup. Geez. That’s gotta be rough for them. And they’ll probably still make the playoffs. It’s nice to have team depth, I guess.

Heath Fillmyer will go for the Royals, today, as they try to guarantee a series split with the Bronx Bombers. In two starts this year he has a 9.00 ERA which isn’t great but a 3.94 FIP which isn’t terrible. He’s been getting more groundballs than any other type of batted ball, though. This is a good thing, especially in Yankees stadium.

The Yankees will counter with Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka had three terrific starts to begin the year but his last start, against the White Sox, saw him get shelled for five runs in four innings. He doesn’t walk a lot of guys so the Royals probably should look to swing at the first good pitch they see from him

Lineups