An important stretch of the season that sees the Royals play ten straight games against AL Central foes will come to an end after the conclusion of a trip to the Windy City to face the White Sox in a three-game set. Here are some stats to keep an eye on and the probable starters for each game.
Probable Starters
Game One: Stephen Kolek (1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Erick Fedde (0-4, 3.79 ERA)
Game Two: Seth Lugo (1-2, 3.21 ERA) vs. Noah Schultz (2-2, 4.68 ERA)
Game Three: Kris Bubic (3-1, 3.50 ERA) vs. Sean Burke (2-3, 3.68 ERA)
Can Royals Starting Pitching Continue Domination of White Sox?
If there has been a constant in recent seasons for the Royals, it has been the starting pitching’s dominance of the White Sox. Seth Lugo is the poster child for this with his 1.31 ERA in seven games started against the White Sox. This year, Lugo has faced the White Sox once going 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs (one earned), four hits, walking four, and striking out four batters. He will look to continue that dominance against one of the White Sox top prospects.
Lugo is the White Sox killer, but Kris Bubic is right behind him in the rankings. Bubic, in 12 games pitched against them, has an ERA of 2.04. He too has faced them this season and it was his seven innings of work, allowing two hits, walking one, and striking out 11 batters. He will get the series finale, but the final Royals starter is one who has never faced the Royals.
How does Stephen Kolek and Noah Schultz do in their first starts against White Sox/Royals?
This series will have two pitchers who have never faced the other team as Kolek and Schultz will get their first goes at the others respective teams. While they won’t directly face each other they both will be wildcards in a crucial series. They both also have a semi-limited sample size, so let’s give them a little dive each.
Kolek is running an impressive streak as a Royal with every one of his starts being quality starts. That includes his spot start against the Guardians where he went six innings, allowing four hits, three runs, walking no one, and striking out three batters. A man of few strikeouts and fewer walks, Kolek will need to keep the ball in Guaranteed Rate Field against a sneaky good White Sox offense.
Schultz, on the other hand, is getting his first cup of coffee as the second ranked prospect in the White Sox system. He has started five games so far and has had three solid outings with his debut and last start against the Los Angeles Angels where he gave up seven runs in 3 2/3 innings. The strengths of the 6’10” southpaw are he limits hard hits and sports a strong mid 90s 4-seam and sweeper that has been his out pitches so far. He also throws a sinker, cutter, and changeup, but those have been hit plenty early in his young career.
Can this be the series “Salvy” turns it around?
Despite having one of his slowest starts to the year, “Salvy” has a chance to get the spark going early in this series. While he isn’t known for hitting the White Sox at an above league average rate, his success against Erick Fedde could be the key along with one of his weirdest splits. Against Fedde, he is 4-for-8 with a double and two walks with an OPS of 1.225.
Even if he doesn’t get much done against Fedde, he has a backup option in his on the road versus a lefty split. Game two will probably be Noah Schultz on the bump and with how many fastballs he throws if Salvy times one up it could be both impactful for the team and for his confidence going forward.
Will Munetaka Murakami have More Impact in Second series against Royals?
The Japanese import didn’t have the strongest showing in his first series against the Royals, being held hitless in the four game set. He did get five walks in the series with two of them coming from Seth Lugo. Murakami also struck out six times with a hat trick of them coming from Kris Bubic.
Murakami has been a rising star in the early stages of the season as the next “Three True Outcome,” or TTO, batter. Using his batting ratios, Murakami strikes out in 34.7% of at-bats, walks 17.3% of the time, and homers in 8.7% of his at bats. That is good for a TTO of 60.7%, and making Adam Dunn proud. While he isn’t the only White Sox batter to get going this season, that lineup becomes scarier for the Royals if Murakami gets going.
As the Royals finish up a crucial stretch of the season, winning the series against the White Sox will ensure a solid 6-4 record against fellow AL Central foes in this ten game stretch.
Related Articles
Add us as a preferred source on Google‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.si.com ’
