Game thread LVIII - Orioles at Royals

We always knew things would look brighter for these Royals, eventually. They simply could not be that bad over a full season. And here they are, with two chances to win a series since they took two out of three from Colorado back on May 13-15. A win this afternoon would also mark their longest winning streak of the season at four. Even better, today’s lineup features three rookies and 25-year-old Daniel Lynch will take the mound.

After an awful first start of the season, Lynch had a pretty good roll going with five of six starts seeing him allow three runs or fewer and three games with no runs allowed at all. Unfortunately, as do most pitchers when they spend too much time near Cal “Pitcher’s Kryptonite” Eldred, he’s struggled lately allowing six runs in each of his last two starts, ballooning his ERA to 5.36. Hopefully, Baltimore can be the cure to what ails the young lefty. He’s already faced them once this year and allowed only two earned runs but also didn’t get out of the fourth inning before being pulled in what was eventually a loss for the Royals.

Baltimore will send Tyler Wells to the mound. The right-hander has been a bright spot for the Orioles this year after debuting in the bullpen, last year. He’s made 11 starts and carries a reasonable, if not exciting, 3.78 ERA. He’s pitched one game against the Royals, this season, and took the win while allowing only a single run in six innings. He doesn’t strike out many, but he walks even fewer. Those kinds of pitch-to-contact guys always give the strikeout-averse Royals a tough time; maybe that explains why the Royals seem to think those kinds of pitchers will work for them even though most other teams are more willing to hunt their pitch.

Lineups