Philadelphia Phillies (49-39, second in the NL East) vs. Kansas City Royals (35-53, fifth in the AL Central)
Kansas City, Missouri; Saturday, 8:10 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Phillies: Jesus Luzardo (6-4, 3.88 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 116 strikeouts); Royals: Michael Wacha (5-5, 3.31 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 84 strikeouts)
LINE: Phillies -159, Royals +130; over/under is 9 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Kansas City Royals open a three-game series at home against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.
Kansas City has a 35-53 record overall and a 19-25 record in home games. The Royals are 22-12 in games when they scored at least five runs.
Philadelphia is 49-39 overall and 24-18 in road games. Phillies hitters have a collective .403 slugging percentage to rank eighth in the NL.
The matchup Saturday is the first meeting this season between the two clubs.
TOP PERFORMERS: Bobby Witt Jr. has 20 doubles, a triple and 12 home runs while hitting .290 for the Royals. Jac Caglianone is 9 for 39 with a triple and four home runs over the past 10 games.
Bryce Harper has 16 doubles, two triples and 20 home runs for the Phillies. Trea Turner is 16 for 47 with three doubles, three home runs and nine RBIs over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Royals: 3-7, .196 batting average, 7.21 ERA, outscored by 39 runs
Phillies: 7-3, .278 batting average, 4.75 ERA, outscored opponents by 12 runs
INJURIES: Royals: Nick Mears: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Kyle Isbel: 10-Day IL (foot), Salvador Perez: day-to-day (elbow), Cole Ragans: 60-Day IL (elbow), Kris Bubic: 60-Day IL (elbow), Connor Seabold: 15-Day IL (lat), James McArthur: 60-Day IL (elbow), Maikel Garcia: 10-Day IL (hand), Carlos Estevez: 60-Day IL (foot), Vinnie Pasquantino: 10-Day IL (hand), Jonathan India: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Alec Marsh: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
Phillies: Brad Keller: 15-Day IL (forearm), Johan Rojas: 60-Day IL (elbow), Adolis Garcia: 60-Day IL (lat)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.foxsports.com ’
