Game Thread: Tigers at Royals

The Royals are going for the three game sweep of division rival Detroit who came into Kansas City the hottest team in baseball. Both teams coming off a wild game last night where the Royals came back to win 9-8.

Daniel Lynch is back with the big club after a series of starting rotation moves headlined by Danny Duffy and Brady Singer being placed on the IL.

Lynch is the highest pitching prospect for the Royals (21 overall on MLB.com), but when he first came to Kansas City in May he made just three starts before heading back to Omaha. In those three starts, Lynch went 0-2 with a 15.75 ERA.

So the only way to go is up right? Right.

There had been speculation that Lynch had tipped pitches and was sent down to Omaha to improve that and his overall craft more but that really wasn’t the case. In July alone, he has made four starts, 0-2 with an ERA north of 9.

Now, this does not mean that Lynch is going to go out on the mound today and pitch a complete stinker, because despite the recent struggles, there is still elite talent in that left arm and it could be dominant on any given day.

With the unknown length of IL time for Singer and Duffy, the Royals will need pitchers like Lynch to step up and fill the void throughout the coming months.

The Tigers will send fellow 2018 draft pick to the mound in Tarik Skubal. The second year left-hander is 6-8 with a 4.18 ERA in 17 starts this season. Skubal got the win in his last start going 6 innings allowing just 1 against the Rangers.

The Royals hitters have had some career success off of Skubal, led by of course Salvador Perez who in just nine at-bats, has two home runs and five RBI’s.

This will be a weird week for both these teams as they are both in the “sellers” group for the trade deadline on Friday.

Line Ups