Danny Duffy to Start for Kansas City Royals on Sunday

The Kansas City Royals will get their ace back on Sunday. That’s when Danny Duffy will be activated from the disabled list, manager Ned Yost confirmed on Saturday.

Things have come full-circle in a span of three weeks for Danny Duffy and the Kansas City Royals.

The undisputed ace of the pitching staff, Duffy was scheduled to start in Cleveland on Aug. 27. But a low-grade pronator strain forced him onto the disabled list the day before the game.

Things went from bad to worse when police issued Duffy a DUI citation the day of his scheduled start. Duffy has since been working toward a possible return.

That return will come on Sunday in Cleveland—exactly three weeks after his last scheduled start. Per the Kansas City Star’s Rustin Dodd, manager Ned Yost announced the decision prior to Saturday’s game:

Duffy is expected to be on a 60-70 pitch limit, according to the Kansas City Royals official website.

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The activation of Duffy could lead to Yost working a six-man rotation over the final two weeks of the season. If that’s the case, Duffy will join Jake Junis, Jason Vargas, Jason Hammel, Ian Kennedy and Sam Gaviglio in the rotation.

The Kansas City Royals have their final day off on Monday before finishing the season with 13 games in as many days. That would give all but one starter—whomever starts Tuesday, in theory—two starts apiece the rest of the way. With the six-man rotation, Duffy would be in line for starts next Sunday against the White Sox and Sept. 30 versus the Diamondbacks.

Through 21 starts this season, Duffy has an 8-8 record with a 3.78 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. He’s been inconsistent at times but looked sharp his last time out. In that outing, he put up a quality start—two runs over six innings—against high-scoring Colorado.

He will have a difficult task in looking to keep a powerful Cleveland offense at bay. When Duffy went down injured, Cleveland had just started its 22-game winning streak. It’s possible the streak would never would have happened if Duffy had been able to make that Sunday start in late August.

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Now, Duffy will be looking to make up for lost time.