Game thread CXLIX - Royals at Pirates

The Royals enjoyed their first beatdown in a while, last night. Can they do it again?

It’s a Saturday day game in Pittsburgh, and the Royals have a chance to keep the good times rolling quickly today after beating down their first sub-.500 foe in weeks last night.

Things will not be as easy today as the Pirates will send Mitch Keller to the mound. Keller has been a steady presence on the Pirates’ mound for several years now and was considered the team ace before young phenom Paul Skenes earned his promotion earlier this season.

Keller has never walked a ton, but recently he’s taken that to a whole new level has he has walked none in three of his past four appearances. That kind of approach can favor the free-swinging Royals, however, as a pitcher who is around the strike zone will get far fewer embarrassing whiffs from the aggressive boys in blue. And, despite those gaudy walk numbers, Keller has struggled since the beginning of August with a 5.86 ERA and averaging just a hair over five innings per start, with several of them at four innings countered by one of seven.

Over the past couple of seasons, Keller has struggled with the long-ball and he’s been even worse over this span, giving up seven dingers in those 35.1 innings. However, that also includes three starts where he gave up none and a start against Cleveland where he allowed 3 home runs and those were the only earned runs he gave up.

The Royals will counter with Michael Wacha. I’m not sure what is left to say about Wacha at this point, he had a rough stretch early in the season, but since adding a slider in a start at the Angels in early May, he has a sparkling 2.62 ERA. None of his peripherals are stunning, but they’re all solid. There isn’t a chink in his armor to be found. He’s been stunningly consistent, too. His ERA since the break is 2.63 and, again, all of his peripherals are roughly in line with his full-season stats. He has walked about half a batter fewer per nine, but that’s it.

Lineups

Hunter Renfroe continues to get the one-day-on, one-day-off treatment. The slumping DeJong gets another day off. Adam Frazier, who hit a home run in last night’s contest against his old team, gets another start.

I honestly don’t know enough about the Pirates to say anything interesting about their lineup. Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz are the only hitters that scare me even a little, and they both have holes in their game that can be exploited. Especially Cruz who hits the ball harder than anyone, but strikes out at the fourth-highest rate among qualified hitters (DeJong is actually second. Woof.)