The Tigers are five games under .500 and traded their two-time Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, to the Dodgers at the trade deadline. And yet, they are just 1.5 games back of a Wild Card spot in what has become a race for mediocrity. The team has lost six of their last eight, and have a tough six-game homestand against the Rays and Dodgers following their weekend at Kauffman Stadium.
Detroit Tigers (61-66) vs. Kansas City Royals (55-74) at Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO
Tigers: 4.54 runs scored/game (12th in MLB), 3.90 runs allowed/game (6th)
Royals: 4.19 runs scored/game (22nd), 4.97 runs allowed/game (27th)
Who’s hot:
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Hao-Yu Lee has turned it on in his rookie seasons, hitting .338/.390/.500 over his last 29 games.
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Michael Massey is hitting .357/.373/.589 with three home runs in 16 games this month.
Who’s not
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Dillon Dingler homered in three straight games earlier this month, but has hit 3-for-48 (.063) in 12 games since then.
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Isaac Collins is hitting .189/.271/.305 in 30 games since the All-Star break.
Interesting matchups:
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Troy Melton has allowed two or fewer runs in 13 of his 14 starts and he has the lowest ERA in baseball for anyone with 80+ innings pitched.
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Noah Cameron has allowed five runs in 37.2 innings in his last five starts, a 1.19 ERA over that time.
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Drew Anderson has given up four runs in 12.2 innings (2.84 ERA) in three starts since joining the rotation, but has yet to go more than five innings.
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Michael Wacha is on pace to become the first Royals pitcher to lead the American League in innings pitched since James Shields in 2013.
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Framber Valdez has a career 2.51 ERA in 28.2 innings at Kauffman Stadium, but he is just 2-3 against the Royals in 11 career games.
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Lefties are hitting just .156/.200/.222 against Daniel Lynch IV this season.
The Tigers have 28 blown saves, second-most in baseball. Kenley Jansen blew a lead in his last outing against the Pirates, but he did not allow a run in any of his nine outings in July. Overall he has 16 saves in 21 opportunities. Kyle Finnegan has the tenth-highest FIP of any qualified reliever.
The Royals have dropped six of ten to the Tigers this year, although they took two out of three from them at home back in early May. At 8.5 games out of the Wild Card race, the Royals are too far away to realistically get back in it. But they can certainly play a spoiler to what has been an underwhelming Tigers squad.
