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Cardinals host Royals on Wednesday
By: Staff Writer - StatFox
Published: 6/29/2016  at  2:06:00 PM
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By Michael Rothman

KANSAS CITY ROYALS (40-36)

at ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (40-36)

First pitch: Wednesday, 8:15 p.m. ET
Line: Kansas City +160, St. Louis -170, Total: 8.0

Kansas City goes to St. Louis to play the second portion of a four-game, home-and-home series on Wednesday.

Kansas City got one win at home on Monday night, when the team won 6-2 in the first game of the series. The Royals then lost last night’s game 8-4. This is the first series of the year that the two teams have played against each other. The Royals are 5-5 in their last 10 games. Kansas City will not be happy to be on the road because the team is just 13-25 away from home this season. The reigning World Series Champions are fighting for first place in the AL Central. They are in second place and six games behind Cleveland. St. Louis, meanwhile, is coming into the game off of an eight-run outburst last night. The Cardinals are also 5-5 in their last 10 games. All season they have underperformed at home, going 15-21 in St. Louis. Even though the Cardinals have been playing well all season (40-36) ,they have the best team in the league in their division, the Cubs, who own a 10-game lead over them. Tonight’s pitching matchup features Kansas City’s RHP Edinson Volquez (7-7, 5.15 ERA, 73 K) against St. Louis’s RHP Carlos Martinez (7-5, 3.05 ERA, 70 K).

Edinson Volquez is looking to get back on track after a horrible outing last time out. His last start was against Houston, where he lasted just one inning and gave up 11 earned runs in a loss. Before he fell apart in the last game, he won two straight games. Volquez is 5-6 with a 4.58 ERA in his career against St. Louis. His last start against the Cardinals was in May of last season when he threw six innings and only gave up two runs in a win. The team has played well behind Volquez this year going 9-7 in his starts. If the game becomes a bullpen battle tonight, the edge goes to Kansas City because they have the top ERA as a bullpen in the MLB (2.73). The Kansas City batters will be going against an unfamiliar pitcher tonight because only two Royals players have ever faced Martinez. 1B Eric Hosmer (.311, 12 HR, 48 RBI) is leading the team in almost every stat category. 2B Whit Merrifield (.307, 2 HR, 13 RBI) has cooled off from when he broke on the scene in May, but has still consistently got on base (.329 OBP). DH Kendrys Morales (.247, 12 HR, 37 RBI) has been on fire recently, going .526 with two homers and five RBI in the last seven days. SS Alcides Escobar (.260, 1 HR, 19 RBI) is also getting hot right now, hitting .423 in the last seven days.

St. Louis’ offense had no problem scoring runs last night. It wasn’t a surprise because the Cardinals have easily scored runs on righties this year (2nd most runs vs. righties in MLB). Tonight, they will also be going up against a righty in Volquez. 3B Matt Carpenter (.300, 14 HR, 49 RBI) will be looking to build off his 2-for-3 game last night, where he also homered. The month of June has been kind to Carpenter as he has hit .368 with five homers and 14 RBI over the stretch. OF Matt Holliday (.257, 15 HR, 47 RBI) will be excited to go against Volquez because he has hit .324 with two homers and five RBI against him in his career. The Cardinals will hope that SS Aledmys Diaz (.316, 10 HR, 40 RBI) will be able to play tonight because he is hitting .500 with two homers and seven RBI in the last seven days. Diaz has also been the top hitter amongst the every-day starters against right hitting pitching (.331). Carlos Martinez has had three great starts his last three times out, but a lack of run support only allowed him to pick up one win. He has a 0.81 ERA in the last three games and has lasted at least seven innings in all of the games. This is his first career start against Kansas City though. He also leads the team in wins and ERA amongst the starters.


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