Gamethread XCIII - Tigers at Royals

The Royals are undefeated since the All-Star Break. As I was saying on Twitter last week, sometimes all it takes is a four-day vacation to get yourself back into a productive place. Perhaps they’ll continue that productivity tonight as they face the Tigers again.

The Royals will send Brad Keller to the mound. Keller was getting batted around pretty badly his last few starts before the break but did manage to throw 5.2 innings of one-run ball in his final start against the Nationals. This will be his third start against the Tigers, this year, and his previous outings were pretty mediocre. It would be nice if he did better than that this time.

The Tigers will counter with Matthew Boyd. Through the end of May Boyd had struck out more than a batter an inning and was carrying a 2.85 ERA. In short, he looked like he’d suddenly become an ace. Since the start of June he’s struck out even more batters but has carried an ERA of 6.03. In large part because he can’t seem to stop giving up home runs. Over the past month and a half he’s been allowed one dinger every three innings. That’s ungood. Boyd is also making his third start again KC, tonight. The first was a pretty solid seven-inning, two-run effort. The last was a four-inning, five-run effort. The Royals will have to hope he hasn’t figured out how to limit the dingers. Who knows, maybe Bubba Starling can find his first hit and his first home run, tonight.

Lineups