Kansas City Royals (36-26, second in the AL Central) vs. Cleveland Guardians (40-20, first in the AL Central)
Cleveland; Thursday, 1:10 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Brady Singer (4-2, 2.63 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 64 strikeouts); Guardians: Tanner Bibee (4-1, 3.74 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 69 strikeouts)
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Guardians -152, Royals +129; over/under is 7 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Cleveland Guardians host the Kansas City Royals, leading the series 1-0.
Cleveland has a 40-20 record overall and a 21-7 record at home. Guardians hitters have a collective .395 slugging percentage to rank 10th in the majors.
Kansas City has a 36-26 record overall and a 14-16 record on the road. The Royals have the sixth-best team batting average in MLB play at .253.
The matchup Thursday is the second meeting between these teams this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Andres Gimenez has nine doubles, a triple, four home runs and 33 RBI for the Guardians. Jose Ramirez is 13-for-37 with four doubles and four home runs over the last 10 games.
Salvador Perez has 15 doubles and 10 home runs for the Royals. Nelson Velazquez is 6-for-35 with a double, a triple and four home runs over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Guardians: 7-3, .241 batting average, 4.60 ERA, outscored opponents by 16 runs
Royals: 3-7, .255 batting average, 4.86 ERA, outscored by eight runs
INJURIES: Guardians: Eli Morgan: 15-Day IL (elbow), Gavin Williams: 60-Day IL (elbow), Shane Bieber: 60-Day IL (elbow), Trevor Stephan: 60-Day IL (elbow), James Karinchak: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
Royals: Michael Wacha: 15-Day IL (foot), Michael Massey: 10-Day IL (back), Josh Taylor: 60-Day IL (biceps), Kris Bubic: 60-Day IL (elbow), Kyle Wright: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
