Gamethread LIII - Royals at Rays

The communists must not be allowed to win!

With last night’s win, the Royals tied their longest winning streak of the season at seven games. For context, their longest losing streak of the season has been three games, which they’ve also done twice. But even those two losing streaks don’t add up to one of their top winning streaks. Pretty cool.

The Royals, in winning last night’s game, also guaranteed they would not be swept in this series either. With almost two months and almost one-third of the season complete, the Royals still have not been swept while they have completed four sweeps. Perhaps even more impressive is that they have only even entered the final game of a series with a chance to be swept once - the opening series against Minnesota.

Finally, with Wednesday’s win, the Royals swept an entire week of play for the first time this season. They have yet to post a losing record in a single week starting from opening day. If they win this afternoon, they can mark their first complete winning calendar week.

That’s just a lot of winning for some boys playing some ball.

Brady Singer will take the mound for Kansas City. I’ve been fairly critical of him, but that hasn’t stopped him from finding plenty of success for the Royals this season. He enters today’s contest the proud owner of a sparkling 2.70 ERA. The Rays will counter with right-hander Aaron Civale. Civale is in his first full season with the Rays after they acquired him from the Guardians in a deadline deal last year.

The 28-year-old Civale had had reasonable success in his career with the Guardians but sported an ERA over five after the trade last season, and it’s only grown worse this year. His first few starts to the season weren’t bad but in his last six, dating back to April 21 against the Yankees, he sports an 8.48 ERA, has averaged fewer than five innings per start, and hasn’t given up fewer than two runs. That said, it would be a new season worst for him if the Royals could score eight off of him to extend their five-game streak of scoring eight or more runs. (A streak that coincides with Freddy Fermin starting in four of those games and the outfielders bouncing back to merely bad instead of horrendous.)

Civale’s problem does not appear to have been walk- or strikeout-related, but he’s given up a lot of hits, including five home runs in 28.2 innings over those six starts. In his favor, he’s pitched well against KC going 4-1 in nine starts with a reasonably good 3.15 ERA. He was even better, last year, winning both of his starts and allowing only a single in run in 15 innings. Of course, these aren’t the same Royals and he isn’t the same pitcher.

Lineups

The Rays’ lineup lacks Yandy Díaz and Randy Arozarena, two guys who were heavily featured in better Rays teams but who have struggled this year. It’s hard to say if that is better or worse for the Royals who normally wouldn’t want to see them, but might prefer them over anyone else right now.

As for the Royals, no Fermin in today’s lineup, but Nelson Velázquez had a home run and Hunter Renfroe had a double and a stolen base in last night’s contest, so maybe they’ll be OK without him. Of greater concern might be the absence of Michael Massey who missed the start of the season with back pain and had tightness there again last night which forced him out of the lineup. Massey has been a more than capable number-five hitter since rejoining the team, slashing .294/.306/.529/.835 with six dingers, including one before he exited last night that helped give the Royals some breathing room in the fifth inning. Hopefully, he’s just being held out as a precaution and we will see him again tomorrow.