Kansas City @ Cleveland preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 29, 2015 ) Kansas City 1, Cleveland 12

The Cleveland Indians reached .500 for the first time since April briefly on Sunday before dropping back down below the break-even point. The Indians will try to get back to .500 when they host the first-place Kansas City Royals in the opener of a four-game series on Monday.

Cleveland took the opener of a doubleheader against Detroit on Sunday to improve to 70-70 but dropped the nightcap 9-2 to suffer its fourth loss in the last 16 games. The Indians’ recent run of success is making the second AL wild card a possibility, and they head into the week 4 1/2 games behind the Texas Rangers for that spot with 21 games left. The Royals are in no danger of surrendering their spot atop the AL Central but are not looking much like the best team in the AL with losses in seven of their last nine games and a pitching staff that just surrendered a total of 28 runs in three games at Baltimore. Cleveland will try to keep its postseason hopes alive behind Carlos Carrasco while Kansas City counters with Edinson Volquez on Monday.

TV: 7:10 p.m. ET, FSN Kansas City, STO (Cleveland)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Royals RH Edinson Volquez (13-7, 3.49 ERA) vs. Indians RH Carlos Carrasco (12-10, 3.70)

Volquez is having some trouble finding consistency of late but is coming off a strong outing in which he held Minnesota to two runs in seven innings to earn a win. The Dominican Republic native has allowed two or fewer earned runs in three of his last six starts and at least five earned runs in the other three. Volquez walked five in six innings but yielded only three runs to win at Cleveland on July 27.

Carrasco (shoulder) came off the disabled list at Chicago on Tuesday and was knocked around for four runs on four hits – two home runs – and three walks in 2 2/3 innings to absorb the loss. The Venezuela native had surrendered two or fewer earned runs in five straight starts before hitting the DL. Carrasco won twice at Kansas City earlier this season, allowing a total of four runs in 14 innings.

WALK-OFFS

1. Indians 2B Jason Kipnis is 3-for-32 over his last eight games.

2. The Royals’ magic number to clinch the AL Central is 11.

3. Cleveland rookie SS Francisco Lindor is 3-for-14 in his career against Kansas City with a pair of home runs.

PREDICTION: Royals 5, Indians 4