Cleveland @ Kansas City preview
Kauffman Stadium
Last Meeting ( May 12, 2010 ) Cleveland 4, Kansas City 0
By this time last year, Zack Greinke had six victories and was already pulling ahead in the race for the Cy Young award.
This season Greinke is still in the starting blocks, much like the rest of the 11-23 Royals.
Greinke has pitched well enough to win in every start, carrying a 2.51 ERA into Thursday, but the Royals have scored just three combined runs over his last three starts.
The Royals are still in an offensive funk. They stranded 13 runners in Wednesday night’s 4-0 loss to Cleveland and went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Kansas City has scored twice in two games against Cleveland’s Jake Westbrook, who entered with an ERA above 5.00, and Fausto Carmona, who allowed seven base runners in five innings Wednesday.
Trey Hillman, who is feeling the heat during this seven-game losing streak, tried shaking up his batting order on Wednesday to no avail. Scott Podsednik went from second to leadoff, David DeJesus dropped from leadoff to third and Billy Butler dropped from third to cleanup. Seven of the Royals’ nine hits were singles.
Kansas City also shook up its bullpen, designating Josh Rupe for assignment following a poor performance Tuesday against the Indians. Blake Wood, who had five saves and a 2.16 ERA in a dozen games in Triple-A, rejoined the bullpen.
The Indians hope David Huff can use Thursday’s start against the scuffling Royals to get going. Huff led the team as a rookie last season with 11 victories, but has allowed 22 hits in his last two official starts.
Those numbers could be even worse, but he was saved by a rainout in his last start, when he was lifted after just 2 2-3 innings against Detroit – what would’ve been the shortest start of his career. Instead, he gets a mulligan and will try again versus the Royals.
Cleveland’s offense is finally beginning to produce. First baseman Russell Branyan has homered three times in his last two games and manager Manny Acta seems to be giving up on Luis Valbuena as a starting infielder.
Valbuena’s time has been brief since committing a pair of crucial errors in the ninth inning last week that cost Cleveland a game against Toronto. Veteran Mark Grudzielanek has started the last three games for the scuffling Valbuena, who is 1-for-15 in his last seven games and 3-for-27 in his last 11.