Royals vs Dodgers Game 82 Gamethread

The second half of the season starts tonight.

The 38-43 Royals welcome the NL West-leading (and tied for MLB lead) 51-31 Los Angeles Dodgers to town for a weekend series in Kansas City. While the weather has gotten blistering hot here in KC, the bats have cooled off miserably this past week. The Royals are on a five-game losing streak, getting swept by the Rays in the process. They haven’t scored a run since Tuesday in a 5-1 loss. They’ve scored only four runs total in this five-game losing streak.

The Dodgers, however, just swept the lowly Rockies and are on a four-game winning streak. They’ve scored 13, 9, 8, and 3 runs in those four wins. The Royals could never.

Luckily, the Royals send Noah Cameron to the mound. Cameron has been something of a revelation so far this season with only one truly bad start under his belt (6/10 against NYY). In all of his other seven starts, he has given up at most two runs. The Royals offense will need him to be on his game against the powerhouse LA lineup.

The Dodgers will send Dustin May to start. Halfway through the season, May has already set new career-highs in starts (14) and innings pitched (78 and 2/3). The Dodgers usually function with only about 1.25 functional starting pitchers at any given time, so despite May throwing to a 4.46 ERA / 4.55 FIP, the Dodgers desperately need the innings. Drawing the Royals is perfect for May, as the Royals won’t challenge his high walk rate and don’t threaten to hit many home runs.

The game starts at 7:10pm US Central. You can watch the game in-market on FanDuel Sports Network Kansas City. If you live out-of-market of both KC and LA, you can watch the game on MLB Network. You can listen on the Royals Radio Network.

Lineups