Kansas City Royals Look to Continue Winning Ways with Tigers Coming to Town: Stats and Trends to Keep an Eye on
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The Royals are playing some solid baseball over the past couple of series, and they will look to continue that against AL Central rivals, the Detroit Tigers. They are 6-1 in their last two series with the offense being the focal point of the hot stretch with some good output and insane comebacks. Here are some stats and trends as well as probable starters when the Tigers come to town.
Probable Starters
Game One: Noah Cameron (7-8, 4.16 ERA) vs. Troy Melton (7-1, 1.49 ERA)
Game Two: Michael Wacha (6-8, 3.59 ERA) vs. Drew Anderson (4-4, 4.01 ERA)
Game Three: Daniel Lynch IV (4-4, 2.83 ERA) vs. Framber Valdez (8-8, 4.35 ERA)
Pitchers Duel in Game One
Game one will feature two pitchers who have been dominant as of late. They might not have the name recognition of some notable aces, but they have been the aces of their teams for the past month or so. Noah Cameron toes the slab for the Royals in game one, looking to continue a stretch of games where he has an ERA of 1.19 and has gone at least seven innings in four of his last five appearances.
This stretch for Cameron began with a bulk relief appearance against the Tigers on July 24, and with that, he also began calling his own games. Since then, he has been very effective, with one road bump against the Dodgers, where he gave up four runs. On the other side, for the Tigers, they will have Troy Melton on the mound in game one.
Melton has been just as dominant as Cameron, except it has been for a little longer. He has an ERA of 1.16 since the start of July, which is eight starts. Of those eight starts, Melton has only allowed runs in three of them, including when the Royals got three runs against him on July 23. Good news for the Royals, however: Melton is coming off his worst start with an outing against the White Sox where he went 4.1innings, allowing nine hits, three runs, walking one, and striking out four.
The series will start with a bang as both pitchers will look to keep their recent forms going.
Bobby Witt Jr has returned to Form since IL Stint
Since returning on August 4 from the IL for lower back tightness, Bobby Witt Jr has looked like his usual self. In those 16 games since his return, he is slashing .328/.431/.541 for an OPS of .972 and a wRC+ of 168. He is doing everything at the plate as well, showing the power with seven extra-base hits (four doubles and three home runs), walking at a 13.9% rate, and has scored 20 runs during this stretch of play.
The only issue one might have is the fact that he only has nine RBIs during this stretch. He has been part of the reason the Royals' offense has been good during this stretch.
Vinnie Pasquantino got off on the right step in return from IL
The "Pasquatch" came off the IL from wrist soreness before the opening game against the Athletics, and after a 1-for-4 in game one, he got hot in the series. He ended the series going 7-for-17 with a home run and two doubles while also not striking out and drawing two walks. It looked like he was in form during the A's series and will look to take that into the Tigers series.
Against the Tigers, Vinnie has produced well, with a career OPS of .786, and he has a solid track record against the three probable starters. In what is a season he would like to forget, Vinnie ending the year strong would be nice for both him and the Royals.
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Trey is no stranger to writing about the Royals as he has done it for 6 years now for various blogs (Kings of Kauffman, Inside The Royals, and Farm to Fountains). He is a graduate of Baker University with a degree in Mass Media with an emphasis in sports media. He enjoys watching and researching sports as well as gaming.
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