<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> host the Kansas City Royals<\/a> tonight at Citizens Bank Park<\/a> to open a three-game interleague series in mid-September.<\/p>\n Philadelphia enters with its division race essentially wrapped up after sweeping a four-game set against the New York Mets<\/a>. The Phillies now hold an 11-game lead over New York with just 15 games remaining. Barring a collapse, they\u2019re on track for a second straight NL East crown. But, as last year\u2019s NLDS showed, that\u2019s no guarantee of postseason success.<\/p>\n The Royals, meanwhile, sit just above .500 and remain in the AL Wild Card chase, trailing the Houston Astros<\/a> and Seattle Mariners<\/a> by five games. But their schedule offers little relief: after this series in Philadelphia, they face both Seattle and the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>.<\/p>\n Walker Buehler gets the start for the Phillies. Signed to a minor league deal in August after being released by Boston, the former Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> ace was called up today. He\u2019s 7\u20137 with a 5.45 ERA and will mainly be tasked with eating up innings as Philadelphia manages its rotation down the stretch, especially with Zack Wheeler<\/a> out for the year. With their offensive depth and division cushion, the Phillies can afford to treat this start as a bridge game.<\/p>\n Kansas City\u2019s Michael Lorenzen (5\u201310, 4.63 ERA) takes the mound for the other side. Since returning from the injured list in mid-August, he\u2019s 0\u20132 with a 4.74 ERA across five starts. That gives Philadelphia\u2019s bats every opportunity to generate offense, regardless of how Buehler performs in his return.<\/p>\n Expect a game with plenty of offense. Even if Buehler struggles in his Phillies debut, Philadelphia\u2019s bats should give him cover against Lorenzen and the Royals\u2019 pitching staff. The Phillies\u2019 lineup has enough firepower to break through.<\/p>\n Prediction: <\/strong>Phillies 7, Royals 4<\/p>\n 1. Mike Yastrzemski \u2014 RF<\/p>\n 2. Bobby Witt Jr. \u2014 SS<\/p>\n 3. Vinnie Pasquantino \u2014 1B<\/p>\n 4. Maikel Garcia \u2014 3B<\/p>\n 5. Salvador Perez \u2014 C<\/p>\n 6. Adam Frazier \u2014 LF<\/p>\n 7. Michael Massey \u2014 2B<\/p>\n 8. Jac Caglianone \u2014 DH<\/p>\n 9. Kyle Isbel \u2014 CF<\/p>\n Starting Pitcher: <\/strong>Michael Lorenzen (RHP) \u2014 5\u201310, 4.63 ERA<\/p>\n 1. Harrison Bader \u2014 CF<\/p>\n 2. Kyle Schwarber \u2014 DH<\/p>\n 3. Bryce Harper \u2014 1B<\/p>\n 4. Brandon Marsh \u2014 LF<\/p>\n 5. Otto Kemp \u2014 3B<\/p>\n 6. Max Kepler \u2014 RF<\/p>\n 7. Edmundo Sosa \u2014 SS<\/p>\n 8. Bryson Stott \u2014 2B<\/p>\n 9. Rafael Marchan \u2014 C<\/p>\n Starting Pitcher: <\/strong>Walker Buehler (RHP) \u2014 7\u20137, 4.63 ERA<\/p>\n First pitch for tonight\u2019s game between the Kansas City Royals and Philadelphia Phillies is set for 6:45 PM Eastern at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n The game airs live on NBC Sports Philadelphia and FanDuel Sports Network Kansas City.<\/p>\n Out-of-market viewers can stream the game on MLB.TV.<\/p>\n Date:<\/strong> Friday, September 12, 2025<\/p>\n First Pitch:<\/strong> 6:45\u202fPM Eastern<\/p>\n Venue:<\/strong> Citizens Bank Park \u2014 Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n TV:<\/strong> NBC Sports Philadelphia, FanDuel Sports Network Kansas City<\/p>\n Streaming:<\/strong> MLB.TV (out\u2011of\u2011market)<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source globelynews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Philadelphia Phillies host the Kansas City Royals tonight at Citizens Bank Park to open a three-game interleague series in mid-September. Philadelphia enters with its division race essentially wrapped up after sweeping a four-game set against the New York Mets. The Phillies now hold an 11-game lead over New York with just 15 games remaining. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2017612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[21849,370250,43627,25866,305643,357712],"class_list":["post-2017611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-baseball","tag-citizens-bank-park","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-phillies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Preview-Predictions-Where-to-Watch-91225.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2017611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2017612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2017611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2017611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2017611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Prediction<\/h2>\n
Starting Lineups<\/h2>\n
Kansas City Royals<\/span><\/h3>\n
Philadelphia Phillies<\/span><\/h3>\n
How to Watch Royals vs. Phillies<\/h2>\n
Kansas City Royals vs. Philadelphia Phillies<\/h3>\n
\n<\/p>\n