KC Royals vs. New York Yankees: Series Breakdown and Prediction

The KC Royals, now finally on a winning streak, look to continue their string of wins against American League East teams. This time, they’ll give it a go against the New York Yankees.

The KC Royals kick things off on Tuesday night after an off day Monday. The series will wrap up Thursday evening.

Game 1

RHP Jason Hammel (1-4, 5.97 ERA, 1.76 WHIP) vs. LHP CC Sabathia (2-2, 5.77 ERA, 1.51 WHIP)

Things get kicked off in this series with two struggling starting pitchers.

Stepping on the mound for the KC Royals will be Jason Hammel. We all though Hammel had fixed his issues with the change he made, only pitching out of the stretch. Those thoughts sort of changed after a bad start in Tampa, going seven, giving up six runs.

But Hammel’s last start in Kauffman may have been his best, a six inning, one performance against the Cleveland Indians.

In his last start, Hammel’s fastball hovered over the plate too much. That might be a lot of the problem too. Hammer’s strikeouts are up, walks are down, and hits are up.

Taking the mound for the Yankees will be the once heralded CC Sabathia. In the twilight of Sabathia’s career, you’d expect the obvious, his velocity is way down. Over the years, he’s lost about 4 mph on his fastball, 2 mph on his slider, and 2 mph on his changeup.

Don’t write him off for this start though. Current KC Royals hitters have a combined .637 OPS against him with one lonely homer.