Royals drop Game 1 lineup for AL Division Series vs Yankees

After a two-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles in the Wild Card series, the Kansas City Royals are gearing up to take on the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series. With first pitch scheduled for 5:38 p.m. on Saturday, October 5, the Royals have announced their starting lineup for Game 1.

The lineup comes just hours after the Royals revealed their ALDS roster, which saw no changes at all from the one the team utilized in the Wild Card series.

KC Royals stick with familiar lineup for Game 1 of ALDS

For Game 1 of the ALDS, the Royals' batting lineup is the exact same as it was for Game 1 of the Wild Card series, and well, if ain't broke, don't fix it.

With Michael Massey, Bobby Witt Jr., and Vinnie Pasquantino leading off the batters, Kansas City has a fierce 1-2-3 to get the game started. Tommy Pham will start in right field which means keeping Hunter Renfroe on the bench, but if the Wild Card series is anything to go by (and it certainly appears that it is), Renfroe will likely take his place for Game 2.

KC Royals start Michael Wacha on the mound against the NY Yankees' Gerrit Cole

On Thursday, MLB.com reporter Anne Rogers revealed that right-hander Michael Wacha would be starting on the mound for Game 1 of the ALDS, followed by Cole Ragans in Game 2.

Through 29 regular-season starts this year, Wacha went 13-8 with a 3.35 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, and 145 strikeouts in 166.2 innings — but those aren't the only stats that matter for this matchup. Despite being arguably the weakest starter in Kansas City's top-four, Wacha has been a problem for the Yankees for years, and one player who has been particularly shaken by the 33-year-old is New York superstar Aaron Judge.

Facing Wacha through his career, Judge has gone 1-for-18 with 11 strikeouts, accumulating a batting average of just 0.56. If the Royals are looking to get inside the Yankees’ heads — and Judge’s head in particular — starting Wacha in Game 1 may be the perfect way to do so.

Yankees' ace Gerrit Cole will take the mound opposite Wacha, and with a 3.41 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 99 strikeouts in 95 innings this season, he's unlikely to make it easy for the Royals' offense to get too many runs away.

Being the underdog doesn't phase KC Royals

There's no denying that Kansas City is going into the ALDS as the underdog, but when discussing his team's outlook on facing the top-seeded Yankees, Royals manager Matt Quatraro told USA Today's Bob Nightengale that being the favorite to win "doesn't matter when you get out on the field."

"Thankfully we're not playing against their tradition, right?" Quatraro said. "We're playing against the team that we're facing off against this week. That's going to be plenty of a challenge. We understand how talented they are, but nobody gets to this point in the offseason or the postseason without being talented and being a good team. We take it as a challenge."