Kansas City Royals (33-46, fifth in the AL Central) vs. Boston Red Sox (50-31, first in the AL East)
Boston; Thursday, 1:10 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Kris Bubic (2-3, 4.47 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, 41 strikeouts) Red Sox: Nathan Eovaldi (8-4, 3.57 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 84 strikeouts)
LINE: Red Sox -3304, Royals +1150; over/under is 8 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: Kansas City enters the game as losers of their last eight games.
The Red Sox are 26-17 in home games in 2020. The Boston offense has compiled a .260 batting average as a team this season, good for third in the American League. Xander Bogaerts leads the team with an average of .330.
The Royals are 15-27 on the road. Kansas City hitters have posted a team on-base percentage of .305 this season, led by Carlos Santana with a mark of .355.
The Red Sox won the last meeting 6-2. Martin Perez notched his sixth victory and J.D. Martinez went 1-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs for Boston. Mike Minor took his sixth loss for Kansas City.
TOP PERFORMERS: Bogaerts leads the Red Sox with 94 hits and has 48 RBIs.
Whit Merrifield leads the Royals with 90 hits and is batting .287.
LAST 10 GAMES: Red Sox: 7-3, .279 batting average, 3.31 ERA, outscored opponents by 10 runs
Royals: 2-8, .260 batting average, 6.56 ERA, outscored by 25 runs
INJURIES: Red Sox: Chris Sale: (elbow), Ryan Brasier: (left calf), Christian Arroyo: (knee), Kevin Plawecki: (hamstring).
Royals: Daniel Tillo: (undisclosed), Jesse Hahn: (shoulder), Wade Davis: (forearm), Ronald Bolanos: (flexor), Andrew Benintendi: (rib), Emmanuel Rivera: (hand), Adalberto Mondesi: (oblique), Cam Gallagher: (shoulder).
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
