At this point, these teams are no strangers. The Kansas City Royals (28-73) and Cleveland Guardians (49-50) began the week with seven meetings against each other, including a three-game set right before the All-Star break. The Guardians have dominated, with a 5-2 record in those matchups. Hosting this series and trailing in the division, Cleveland needs to keep beating Kansas City if they want another division crown. When the Royals hit Progressive Field, they'll want nothing more than to play spoiler. This game will be the second of the series, scheduled for 7:10 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. Let's see how these AL Central clubs stack up with the trade deadline looming.
Entering this series, only the Oakland Athletics had a worse winning percentage than the Royals. Kansas City was only 0.5 games above them. Every facet of the game has been ugly in KC, but the offense takes the cake as a team anchor. Ranking 29th in runs per game, the Royals have MLB's worst OBP. A lot of teams have caught heat in July, but not Kansas City which is one of six teams scoring fewer than four per game this month. They have 84 steals (5th) and have only been caught 26 times, good for a 76.4% success rate. Otherwise, scroll to the bottom of any team statistics at the plate to find the Royals. That includes home runs (28th), walk rate (28th), slugging percentage (27th), and batting average (25th).
Of course, Kansas City also owns a team ERA that's 28th out of 30 teams. The bullpen has been one of the league's worst units all season and traded away Aroldis Chapma n. The rotation contains multiple pitchers that probably don't have many MLB starts left in their careers. Zack Greinke might have his name in Cooperstown one day, but he certainly fits the over-the-hill bill. He has a 5.40 ERA this season, including a 7.42 in away games. That full-season ERA would represent the second-worst of his 20-year career, as would Greinke's current 4.92 FIP. He held the Guardians to two runs (despite 11 hits) over 6.0 innings in late June, a rare Royals win. However, it is the only Royals win in his past 11 starts.