This Friday the (57-86) Kansas City Royals and the (69-74) Boston Red Sox will play the first game of this three-game series. The first pitch will be thrown out at 7:10 PM EST inside Fenway Park. The last time that these two teams matched up, the Royals ended up taking three of four games and winning the series.
The Kansas City Royals will be coming into this one after losing their previous series to the Minnesota Twins. The Royals couldn't get their bats going, as they only scored three combined runs in the first two games.
The Boston Red Sox will enter this one after a tough two-game series with the New York Yankees. The Red Sox lost both games, as they continued to struggle on the mound. They gave up 12 runs in two games, as Boston will have to be better on the mound if they want to challenge the Royals at home.
This game was written/published before last night' s results.
The Kansas City Royals are currently in fourth place in the AL Central, as they still trail the Cleveland Guardians by 20.0 games. The Royals are also 4-6 in their last 10, as their poor play has allowed them to continue sliding in the wrong direction. They are 22.5 games back from the third and final AL Wild Card spot, as they will need to get hot if they want to make a run at the postseason.
At the plate, the Royals are scoring 4.00 runs per game and they are hitting .242 as a team. This is the 24th least amount of runs scored per game and the 16th highest overall team batting average. They have struggled to consistently make contact with the ball, which has made it much more difficult to score. They have also realized that they don't have a ton of power inside of their lineup. They are only averaging .86 home runs per game, which is the third lowest average in the MLB. They will have to string together multiple base hits in order to create a big inning. I also expect Kanas City to stay aggressive once they have reached base safely. They have already stolen 92 bases this season, which is the fifth most.
According to MLB.com, the Royals will start Jonathan Heasley on the mound. He is currently 3-8 with a 5.51 ERA and a 1.57 WHIP. In his last start, he pitched for 4.0 innings and gave up seven hits and seven earned runs, as the Tigers got to him early. Heasley has also struggled on the road this season, as he is 1-2 with a 4.54 ERA. The Kansas City bullpen has been up and down this season, as they currently have the third-highest bullpen ERA in the league. As a team, the Royals are allowing 5.17 runs per game, which is the fourth most in the MLB.