Series with Seattle Starts Tonight
By Editorial Staff
Coming off of a disappointing one-win series against Minnesota, the Royals are back at it tonight against the Seattle Mariners in the first of a three game set before heading out of town on Thursday to Tampa Bay to take on the Rays.
The Royals, now standing at 7-11 and last in the AL Central, get to face one of the best pitchers in all of baseball tonight, Seattle ace, Felix Hernandez. He is coming off of his best start of the season, a complete game (no earned runs) against the Baltimore Orioles and I’m sure he is licking his chops to face a Royals team that he has had great success against in the past. He has a 3-1 record in five games started, with an ERA of 2.97, a WHIP of .90, and allowing a miniscule .200 batting average against in those games.
On the flip side, the Royals are sending their fifth starter to the hill, Kyle Davies, who is coming off of his worst start of the season in a loss to the Blue Jays (4-3) where he allowed four earned in six innings. Ideally, it would have been nice to send Greinke to the rubber on his normal five days of rest (he hasn’t pitched since last Wednesday in Toronto) to face Hernandez, but Hillman is sticking with his normal rotation. While Davies has not been all that bad this season — in fact, he has been pretty respectable considering he is the fifth starter — he will have to be very sharp tonight if the Royals are to have any chance against Hernandez.
If the Royals strike early and often against the Seattle ace, the Boys in Blue might have a chance of pulling this game out. If not, it could be a long evening.
What do you think?