Game Forty-Five: Kansas City Royals at San Diego Padres

The rulers from Kansas City will take on the fathers from San Diego this afternoon at Petco Park. After nearly being no-hit in the series opener on Monday night, the Royals put up five runs early and held on for a tight victory last night to even the series.

With four potential starting pitchers on the IL, Kansas City will try to take the rubber match with a bullpen game. Carlos Hernández will be the first one up. The erstwhile starter has finally shown swing-and-miss ability in a bullpen role, but a particularly bad outing in Texas last month inflated his ERA. In 13.2 innings since, he has pitched to a 2.63 ERA and 2.35 FIP. Mike Mayers was added to the roster today and, considering he has been starting in Triple-A, will likely be a sort of bulk guy.

The Padres will counter with Yu Darvish. Darvish has been a reliably solid starter for his entire MLB career, if not as dominant as his stuff may suggest. He has a 3.16 ERA in seven starts this year and, while his walk rate is higher than it’s been since 2018, his xERA matches his actual mark. He hasn’t had a scoreless start this year but has consistently kept the Padres in games, and he has completed at least six innings in his last three. The Royals saw Darvish on August 27 last year in Kansas City, when he pitched seven innings and allowed three runs in a 4-3 Padres win.

First pitch: 3:10 pm CDT

Royals lineup

Padres lineup