The Kansas City Royals and the Tampa Bay Rays get set to kick off a four-game series at Tropicana Field in Tampa on Thursday night. The Royals are in the midst of a rebuild and feature a young team of budding stars and an ever-improving young rotation. The Rays are once again in the middle of the playoff picture in the American League and come off of two straight winning series against AL East teams, the Orioles and Yankees. The pitching matchup for the series opener will be Brad Keller (6-13, 4.93) of the Royals taking on an as yet to be named opener for the Rays. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10pm EST.
The Kansas City Royals were shut out for the second-straight game and were swept by the Twins on Wednesday afternoon. The Royals are now 48-71 and 15 games behind the first-place Guardians. On Wednesday afternoon, the Royals were blanked 4-0 by Twins pitching, despite the Twins losing starter Tyler Mahle to shoulder fatigue after just 2.1 innings of work. The Royals managed just five hits off of five Twins relievers after Mahle's exit. Royals' starter Daniel Lynch went five innings and allowed five hits and three earned runs in the loss.
Here's how we're lining up behind Daniel Lynch in this afternoon's series finale vs. the Twins. #TogetherRoyal pic.twitter.com/m7gKd6tWpj
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) August 17, 2022
The Royals are 4-6 in their last ten games and hitting .239 over that span. The Royals are 24th in baseball in runs per game and 20th in slugging percentage this season. The team has parted ways with two of their best hitters in Andrew Benentendi and Whit Merrifield and now the team is being led by youngsters Bobby Witt Jr. and MJ Melendez. On the mound on Thursday in the series opener will be Brad Keller. Keller leads the Royals in starts, quality starts, innings pitched and is tied for the team lead in wins. In his last five starts, Keller has gone 1-4 with an 8.76 ERA. Keller has allowed 36 hits in just 24.2 innings over that span. Against the Rays this season, Keller is o-1 with a 9.00 ERA in one start. He went four innings and allowed four hits and five runs while walking five batters.