Game Eighty-Seven: Kansas City Royals at Seattle Mariners

Salvy knows the significance of this matchup.

The Kansas City Royals take on the Seattle Mariners tonight in the third installment of this year’s Battle for Grass Creek. They split the first two games with the winning team plating six in each of them. A victory tonight would secure at least a split in this rare four-game series.

Kansas City will start Noah Cameron. In his first nine starts in the majors, Cameron has surpassed even the most optimistic expectations in terms of run prevention, posting a 2.79 ERA. That was mostly early on, however, as he has a 5.85 ERA across his last four starts while failing to complete the sixth inning after accomplishing that feat in each of his first five. His home run luck has started to regress, which was a foreseeable issue given how light his four-seamer is. He should enjoy the tough home run conditions of T-Mobile Park.

Seattle will counter with Logan Gilbert. Through the first month of the season, Gilbert looked like one of the best pitchers in baseball, posting 2.37 ERA and 2.16 FIP. He went down for about six weeks with injury and since returning he’s gotten roughed up, posting a 5.73 ERA — though with 23 strikeouts to just two walks. That may be on account of having also allowed five balls to leave the yard. Gilbert last faced Kansas City last May, allowing three runs across six innings.

For the first time in games that I’ve covered this season, the Royals are running out a lineup that they have used recently, with this particular one having been deployed against Randy Vásquez and the Padres on June 22.

First pitch: 8:40 pm CDT

Royals lineup