Royals give Volquez the ball with a chance to sweep away Tigers
The Kansas City Royals have stymied the Detroit Tigers while extending their home win streak to their longest in 12 years.
Given how Edinson Volquez has pitched lately, the Royals would appear to have a promising chance to push their home win streak to eight straight Wednesday night while completing their first sweep of the Tigers in three seasons.
Kansas City (68-44) yielded four hits for the second straight game in a 6-1 win Tuesday. The Royals, who opened the series with a 4-0 victory, have won seven in a row at home for the first time since taking their first 11 games in 2003. They've also won 16 of 19 at Kauffman Stadium and five straight overall.
Kansas City will next get the chance to send out Volquez (11-6, 3.11 ERA), the owner of a 2.28 ERA in his last seven starts. The right-hander has also won three of his last four decisions following a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday.
Volquez gave up one run in seven innings and has allowed one earned run in four consecutive outings at Kauffman. He's 7-2 in 12 starts there this season with a 2.60 ERA, ranked in the top 10 among qualifying AL starters, and has won his last three decisions.
"Volky's been really, really good for us here all year long, but especially his last three or four starts, he's been excellent," manager Ned Yost told MLB's official website.
Volquez has given up two runs in six innings in each of his last two starts against Detroit but took a 2-1 loss May 2 in his lone matchup this season. He'll next try to finish off the Royals' first sweep of the Tigers (54-59) since taking three games Aug. 28-30, 2012.
Detroit has totaled 12 hits and three runs in a three-game losing streak. The Tigers have also dropped 11 of 15 on the road.
"We just couldn't get anything going. We got (seven) walks, but we didn't get many hits to go with them," manager Brad Ausmus said Tuesday.
Ausmus' club will try to avoid dropping four straight for the first time since June 16-20, and Daniel Norris will seek to help with a better performance than in his second start for the Tigers.
Norris (2-2, 4.24) allowed five runs and nine hits in 3 1/3 innings in a 7-2 loss to Boston on Friday after allowing a run over 7 1/3 innings to win his Detroit debut.
The left-hander, acquired from Toronto in the David Price trade, will face Kansas City for the first time and will have to pitch carefully to Eric Hosmer, who has been one of MLB's hottest hitters in the second half. Hosmer, who hit a two-run homer Tuesday, is batting .427 with 19 RBIs in his last 24 games and .412 with a 1.098 OPS in his past 22 against Detroit.
Ian Kinsler, 0 for 7 in this series after hitting .537 in his prior 10 games, is 4 for 9 lifetime against Volquez and went 2 for 3 in the win in May. Victor Martinez is 0 for 10 and only his 0 for 13 performance versus Johnny Cueto is worse among pitchers he's faced 10 or more times.
