Cleveland @ Kansas City preview
Kauffman Stadium
Last Meeting ( Mar 30, 2010 ) Cleveland 2, Kansas City 7
The Cleveland Indians can’t hit. The Kansas City Royals can’t pitch. It’s no wonder they’re the two worst teams in baseball’s weakest division.
There are five teams in the league with a winning percentage below .400. The Indians and Royals are two of them, making the AL Central the only division with two teams below .380.
Cleveland is 13th in the American League in runs scored and 13th in home runs. The Seattle Mariners are the only team in the league to hit fewer homers, and not so coincidentally, score fewer runs.
The Indians have hit multiple home runs in just one game this season. It happened again on Friday, when both Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner homered against the Detroit Tigers, but that game was washed away by rain before becoming official.
Nearly 30 games into the season, Andy Marte (one), Asdrubal Cabrera (one) and Luis Valbuena (two) have more homers than Sizemore and Russell Branyan, both of whom have failed to homer in a contest that counted this season.
The Royals haven’t fared much better. They’re 11th in the league in runs scored and last in team ERA.
Now is the time for hope, though, at least for Kansas City optimists. To this point, the combined winning percentage of the Royals’ opponents is .543. That is about to get much lighter.
Over the next 10 games, the Royals play teams with a combined winning percentage of .354 – five games against the Indians, three with the White Sox and two against the Orioles. By the middle of next week, they’ll either find a reason for hope or they’ll know they’re in for another long Kansas City summer.
The bullpen imploded on the Royals in April but has since solidified. Now it’s the rotation falling apart around Zack Greinke, who has yet to win despite a sparkling 2.51 ERA.
Greinke is the only starter with an ERA under 5.00. Tuesday’s starter, Brian Bannister, watched his ERA soar to 5.03 after getting knocked around for seven runs and seven hits in just three innings in his start last week against the Chicago White Sox.
The Indians will counter with Jake Westbrook, who is still searching for his first win since April 8, 2008. Westbrook missed all of last season following elbow surgery and now has tightness and soreness in his back.
He wouldn’t blame his back for his effort last week, when he was knocked out in the fourth after allowing four runs on five hits and five walks. It was the worst start of the season for Westbrook, who has pitched into the seventh inning just once this year.