Kansas City Royals look to take care of business in the Motor City

Are all series pivotal for the Kansas City Royals going forward? It’s sure starting to seem like it as the AL Central continues to tighten up and we reach the start of the dog days.

Nobody should begrudge the Kansas City Royals their recent success. From what we thought we knew in April, the doubters (hello!) have been proven wrong. This is a team with better than a puncher’s chance of contending for the AL Central. Regardless of how little the Cleveland Indians may pay attention to us, a series win against Detroit this weekend could be just the springboard Ned Yost’s boys need.

This is true. It’s also true that this team is unlikely to win the World Series as presently constructed and still stands to lose multiple integral pieces this winter.

And this represents an extremely interesting dichotomy for Dayton Moore.

As GM, obviously Moore wants to win. He’s the guy that brought a title to Kansas City for the first time in 30 years. Nobody will be more disappointed than Moore if he has to start a rebuild.

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But Dayton Moore is no dummy. He knows what’s out there against him on the market—lots and lots and lots of money and prospects. And when a short-sighted owner or GM starved for a playoff berth offers to fork over a ton of resources to rent Eric Hosmer or Lorenzo Cain or who the heck ever, GMDM may be hard-pressed to see the short-term benefits of chasing Cleveland and hoping to catch fire in October outweighing the long-term gain of refilling his minor-league war chest.

There’s precedent here—the 1997 White Sox made the infamous White Flag Trade, and were champions less than a decade later. Not because of anything or anyone they picked up during the summer of 1997, but still.

Anyway, here’s Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Game One: Matt Strahm (2-4, 4.80 ERA) vs. Justin Verlander (4-4, 4.52 ERA); 6:10 p.m. (CT), Tuesday; FSKC

Strahm will make his third start, looking for a repeat of the first (five innings, one earned against the Angels) rather than the second (three innings, five earned against Boston).

Justin Verlander wakes up next to Kate Upton every day, which I will use this space to remind everyone for as long as I have it.

Watch If: I mentioned Kate Upton, I believe? Maybe she’ll be there.

Game Two: Ian Kennedy (1-6, 4.95 ERA) vs. Daniel Norris (4-5, 4.66 ERA); 6:10 p.m. (CT), Wednesday; FSKC

Kennedy has been pounded by several Tigers during his career. Miguel Cabrera is a .300 hitter against him—no shame in that, Miguel Cabrera is a .300 hitter against everybody—but Justin Upton (.313), J.D. Martinez (.375) and Ian Kinsler (.467) have all hit Kennedy pretty well. Alex Avila only has two hits against Kennedy, but both flew over the fence.

Daniel Norris, as we’ve mentioned before, has a great story and is back after having a malignant cancerous growth removed.

Watch If: The Royals have been one of baseball’s worst against lefties this season, with wRC+ of 79, a wOBA of .296 and OPS of .690 against southpaws. Norris is a lefty, albeit a bad one at home (5.03 ERA, opposing OPS of .874, tOPS+ of 113). Perhaps it’s Kansas City’s time to shine?

Game Three: Jake Junis (2-1, 4.97 ERA) vs. Michael Fulmer (6-6, 3.29 ERA); 12:10 p.m. (CT), Thursday; FSKC

I have to believe Junis is making progress of sorts but his ERA is still hovering near five and his command has been pretty dicey (4.03 BB/9, four hit batsmen his last two outings). Michael Fulmer has blossomed into one of baseball’s best young pitchers. This doesn’t feel great.

Watch If: You’re a huge fan of Cheslor Cuthbert; he’s .455 in his career against Fulmer.

Predictions Sure to be Wrong

In Game One: Verlander spins a gem and Strahm matches him pitch for pitch. Afterward, he asks if Kate Upton has any friends in town.

Game Two: Ian Kennedy loses his glove after the fourth inning; hilarity ensues.

Next: What to do for the bullpen

Game Three: The first three-homer game of Jorge Bonifacio’s career.

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