The 13-13 Cleveland Baseball Club travel to Kansas City to take on the 16-10 American League Central division leading Royals.
Put your hand up if you had the Kanas City Royals leading the American League Central at the beginning of May. That’s right, nobody predicted this early season start for the Royals and the Cleveland Baseball Club will be facing a tough task in their four-game road series in Kansas City.
Cleveland’s starter for Game 1 will be Aaron Civale. Civale is coming off an outing which saw him allow 4 runs on 8 hits in 7.2 innings against the Minnesota Twins. One of the more interesting aspects of that performance is that Civale got the Twins to hit into 18 ground ball outs with 8 fly outs and 4 strikeouts.
Only four Kansas City Royals batters have faced Civale in the past. Hunter Dozier, Cam Gallagher, and Whit Merrifield are a combined 4-8 with 1 double against Civale with Nicky Lopez being 0-3.
Starting for Royals is Daniel Lynch, who will be making his major league debut. The 24-year old left handed pitcher stands 6’6″ and was the 34th overall pick in the 2018 MLB draft. During Lynch’s two seasons in the minors he has a 2.50 ERA, 1.192 WHIP, and 9.6 K/9.
