Colorado @ Kansas City preview
Kauffman Stadium
Last Meeting ( Mar 21, 2010 ) Colorado 11, Kansas City 11
It's regional battle weekend in Major League Baseball, meaning the Colorado Rockies and the Kansas City Royals get the opportunity to fight over the 600 miles of farm land and mountains that sit in between the fair cities of Denver and Kansas City.
The two teams didn't play last season, with the schedule makers at MLB apparently deeming those 600 miles not as important in 2009, but they met in both 2007 and 2008 - with the Royals taking five of six.
Kansas City will play host this weekend for the three-game series, beginning with today's matchup between Brian Bannister and Jason Hammel.
The Royals come into the weekend in good shape, winners of two straight and six of eight. The hot streak comes on the heels of a seven-game slide that led to the firing of manager Trey Hillman.
Hillman, who was plucked from the Japanese leagues by Royals management and quickly drew the scorn of Kansas City's fans for his bullpen usage and strategic mistakes, failed to deliver on the promise of raising the once-proud franchise back to respectability.
He finished with a record of 152-207 [.423] in two-plus seasons at the helm.
New manager Ned Yost, who took over after the Royals beat the Cleveland Indians on May 13, has gone 5-2 since ascending to the big chair.
The offense has come around under Yost, averaging 6.4 runs per game in the five wins, including a nine-run outburst in Thursday's victory over the Indians.
Alberto Callaspo and Jose Guillen homered in the contest as Kansas City moved past Cleveland in the standings and out of last place in the American League Central.
It was the seventh blast of the season for Callaspo, who leads the Royals in slugging percentage and is tied with Guillen for the club lead with 28 RBIs.
Callaspo and Guillen will be looking to feast on the struggling Hammel. The right-hander enters the game with a 7.71 ERA but is coming off his first quality start of the season.
Hammel held the Washington Nationals to three runs on six hits in seven innings while striking out seven and not allowing a walk last Saturday. Hammel, who came up with the Tampa Bay Rays, has appeared in four games against Kansas City - making one start - and has surrendered four runs in 8 1/3 total innings.
Bannister is coming off a quality start of his own, earning a win after allowing three runs in six frames against the White Sox on Sunday. It was a strong turnaround from his two previous starts, in which the right-hander yielded 11 runs in nine total innings to absorb back-to-back losses.
Bannister has made two starts against the Rockies in his career, going 1-0 while allowing three earned runs in 12 combined innings.
Colorado is coming off a 4-0 win over the Houston Astros on Thursday. Ubaldo Jimenez continued his amazing season, allowing one hit in seven scoreless innings to pick up his eighth win and lower his ERA to 0.99.
Perhaps more importantly for the Rockies, Troy Tulowitzki hit a three-run homer off Roy Oswalt in the first inning. It was the second blast of the season for Tulowitzki – and his first since April 20.