I don’t know about you, but whenever I think of Independence Day, I think about Independence Day, the 1996 film. And I always first remember President Whitmore’s grand speech ahead of the climactic battle against the aliens.
What a speech. We used to be a gorram country with gorram movies.
Anyway. The other thing I always remember from that – let’s face it, excellent – film is Will Smith’s first encounter with an alien
It’s the latter clip I hope to see the Royals replicate against the Philadelphia Phillies this evening. “Welcome to Kansas City, please enjoy this jab to the jaw.”
The Royals will, much like Will Smith and the rest of Earth in this movie, be the underdogs in today’s contest. They simply don’t have the firepower that their opponents can boast. They don’t have the speed, and they don’t have the technology. But maybe with some grit they can pull off a win.
OK, now that I’ve gone on about that for way too long, let’s talk about the matchups.
Jesús Luzardo, a very tough left-hander, is going for the Phillies today. The Royals have had their problems against lefties this year. They’ve beaten a few in recent weeks, including torching Shane McClanahan in Tampa Bay just last week. But Luzardo would be a challenge even if they were consistently good against lefties. He was a 5.3 fWAR pitcher last year, and he’s been almost exactly the same guy this year after signing a nice, long extension with Philadelphia.
Luzardo is a true four-pitch pitcher; he throws none of them more often than 36.2% or less than 17.5%. His sweeper leads the way, and it’s an absolutely filthy pitch. He gets chase and whiffs on his three best pitches, but uses his sinker to try to keep lefties honest to mixed effect. Honestly, that might be his one weakness this year. It’s not much of a weakness, though, as he’s still significantly better against lefties overall than righties.
The Royals will counter with Michael Wacha. Wacha has been fantastic for KC this year, a true anchor in the stormy seas of their lost season. He’s also probably their most valuable trade chip as the deadline looms in less than a month. It’s unclear if the Royals will trade him, but either way, it would be nice to see him have more success, if only because it’s more fun to watch the Royals in competitive games than otherwise.
Interestingly, after years of being the leadoff guy for the Phillies, Kyle Schwarber has spent most of his time batting second this year. He’ll be there again, even though that makes the Phillies’ middle of the order potentially vulnerable to a left-handed reliever. I guess Matt Strahm and Daniel Lynch IV are the only ones the Royals have, and they’re not particularly frightening.
Despite the lefty on the mound, Carter Jensen will still lead off tonight. Jac Caglianone has been demoted to the four spot, though, as he’s been a bit cold since the two-home run game against the Rays last week. Salvador Perez is still out of the lineup and Tyler Tolbert gets another start in right field over Kameron Misner, who had a couple of adventures out there last time.
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