Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES Kansas City Royals (26-30) @ St
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Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES Kansas City Royals (26-30) @ St. Louis Cardinals (30-27) Busch Stadium - Monday, June 2, 2014 Game #57 - Road Game #30 Fox Sports Kansas City (HD), ESPN & KCSP Radio (610 Sports) UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES Tuesday, June 3 @ St. Louis Cardinals: RHP James Shields (6-3, 3.36) vs. LHP Jaime Garcia (1-0, 4.12), 6:15 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Wednesday, June 4 vs. St. Louis Cardinals: LHP Jason Vargas (5-2, 3.39) vs. RHP Adam Wainwright (8-3, 2.32), 7:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Thursday, June 5 @ St. Louis Cardinals: RHP Yordano Ventura (2-5, 3.45) vs. RHP Michael Wacha (4-3, 2.45), 7:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Tonight’s game is being broadcast in Kansas City on KCSP Radio (610 Sports) and the Royals Radio Network with Denny Matthews, Ryan Lefebvre and Steve Stewart, while Don Free controls the dials as the producer/engineer...tonight’s game is being televised in High Definition by Fox Sports Kansas City with Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler calling the action...the pre and postgame show on FSKC, Royals Live, is hosted by Joel Goldberg...ESPN is also showing tonight’s game with the trifecta of Dave O’Brien, Aaron Boone and Tim Kurkjian. Royals vs. Redbirds ROYALS GET “BUEHRLE’D” IN TORONTO FINALE--After taking a 2-0 lead in the 4-game Tonight kicks off a home & home series between these I-70 series, Kansas City had to settle for a split in the set after being boatraced on Saturday and then combatants, with the set moving across the state on Wednesday... blanked in Sunday’s finale by Mark Buehrle, 4-0...baseball’s top winner in the early going with 10, the Royals were 1-3 vs. the Cards last year, going 1-1 here and winless in a pair at “The K”...Kansas City trails the all-time Buehrle won for the 25th time over the Royals, matching Roger Clemens for the second most wins all- regular season work by a 31-45 margin, including a 16-16 split time vs. Kansas City trailing only Bert Blyleven’s 34...the St. Charles, MO, native held the Royals to in St. Louis and an 11-9 advantage in new Busch Stadium. 6 hits with a walk and 3 K’s before giving way to Aaron Loup for a scoreless ninth...Alcides Escobar Date Site Score WP LP Att. was the only Royal with 2 hits, which included a double...Jeremy Guthrie deserved a much better fate, 6/2 @ StL 6/3 @ StL allowing just 2 runs over his 7.0 innings with a pair of walks and 5 strikeouts...what wound up the 6/4 KC determining blow was a Dioner Navarro home run in the second inning...Guthrie allowed one more 6/5 KC run and then Edwin Encarnacion clubbed a 2-run shot in the eighth off of Aaron Crow to ice the affair. INTERLEAGUE INTERLUDE--The Royals and Redbirds start of a 4-game series tonight marks the resumption of Interleague play for Kansas City, who has gone 4-1 to this point vs. the Senior Circuit...KC dropped its first contest to San Diego in 12 innings back on May 5 in Petco Park, but then won the remaining two games and followed a week later with a 2-game sweep of Colorado in Kauffman Stadium...the Royals are looking to turn their fortunes against the National League around in 2014, going 9-11 vs. the N.L. last year, their fifth consecutive sub-.500 year...the last winning season against was 2007 when KC dominated with a 13-5 mark...Kansas City’s all-time Interleague mark is 141-167, including a 70-86 ledger on the road...this year’s Interleague work is concentrated against the N.L. West including the 2-1 stop in San Diego followed later by visits to Arizona (3) and Colorado (2), while the Dodgers (3) and Giants (3) are still slated to visit “The K.” HOMESTAND STARTS WEDNESDAY--As this series shifts to Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night it will mark the beginning of an 8-game stay at “The K”...the Royals will host the Redbirds thru Thursday and then the New York Yankees will hit town for a 4-game wraparound series that will run Friday thru Monday, with the finale also slated as a salute to Derek Jeter, as the Yankee captain will play his final regular season game in Kansas City...the homestand will conclude with a 2-game visit from the Cleveland Indians... TOPS IN THIEVERY--Kansas City finds itself back at the top of the American League with 48 thefts on the year...the Royals have been on a bit of a “run” lately, stealing 20 bases in the last 14 games to overtake Houston (43)...the Royals led all of baseball last year with 153 stolen bases, but got off to a slow start this year before the recent run of thefts in which they’ve been successful in 20 of 23 tries (87%). WADING THROUGH THE OPPOSITION--Reliever Wade Davis last worked on Thursday in Toronto with 2.0 perfect innings and was rewarded with his fourth win out of the bullpen in 2014...he has now retired 17 consecutive hitters dating back to a Tyler Flowers single on May 19 and has fanned 42 in his 24.1 innings for a strikeout to 9.0-inning ratio of 15.53, tops among qualifying A.L. relievers and second in the American League to the Yankees’ David Robertson (16.00)...Davis, 28, has not allowed a run in his last 11 appearances, totaling 14.0 innings while recording 24 K’s in that span...since surrendering a season-high 2 earned runs back on April 5, Wade has given up one tally over his last 17 outings (20.0 innings) for a 0.45 ERA with opponents hitting just .104 (7-for-67) while fanning 38. TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Danny Duffy (2-5, 3.57) vs. RHP Shelby Miller (6-4, 3.94) 2014 2013 Career 2014 2013 Career Danny Duffy vs. Cardinals - - 0-0 Major League Record 2-5 (3.57 ERA) 2-0 10-15 Shelby Miller vs. Royals first career appearance Major League Record 6-4 (3.94 ERA) 15-9 22-13 DANNY DUFFY is making his 12th appearance of the year, sixth start...this is his 43rd career big league outing (37th start) and second start against St. Louis...the 25-year-old was the Royals’ third-round selection in the 2007 Free Agent Draft out of Cabrillo High School in Lompoc, Calif. SHORT AFTERNOON--Danny had a tough afternoon last Wednesday in Danny’s 2014 Major League starts Kansas City, dropping a 9-3 decision to Houston...he allowed 6 runs (5 earned) on DATE OPPONENT SCORE IP H R ER HR BB SO TP-K LEFT 7 hits over just 4.0 innings with 5 walks and 3 K’s...he trailed just two hitters into 5/3 Detroit L, 2-9 4.0 2 1 1 0 4 2 75-41 0-1 the outing as an error and a George Springer homer put the Astros up 2-0 early... 5/8 at Seattle L, 0-1 6.0 2 1 1 0 3 4 88-49 0-1 5/17 Baltimore W, 1-0 7.0 2 0 0 0 0 2 97-65 1-0 after allowing runs in the second and third frame, Chris Carter ended Duffy’s day by 5/23 at Los Angeles L, 1-6 6.0 9 5 5 2 2 2 87-59 1-5 leading off the fifth with a solo shot, his first of two roundtrippers in the game...the 5/28 Houston L, 3-9 4.0 7 6 5 2 5 3 86-47 1-6 6 runs allowed were the most by Duffy since July 26, 2011 in a 13-9 loss to the Red 2014 Totals 2-5 3.57 35.1 27 16 14 4 17 24 589-359 61% Career Totals 10-15 4.53 192.2 191 100 97 21 100 161 - - Sox at Fenway Park...it’s been a rough last couple starts for Duff who allowed just 2014 Totals (starter) 1-4 4.00 27.0 22 13 12 4 14 13 433-261 - 2 runs in his first 3 starts of the year, he’s been charged with 11 (10 earned) over his last two outings, totaling 10.0 innings. PICK THREE--Danny picked off David Freese in his May 23 start vs. the Angels to take over the A.L. lead with 3 pickoffs...he also ranks second in the Majors behind Pittsburgh’s Charlie Morton (4)...Duffy’s 12 career picks are tops among active pitchers who have worked less than 300.0 innings. LIMITED SUPPORT IN STARTS--The Royals have been held to 3 runs with Danny on the mound during his 5 starts (27.0 IP), an average of 1.00 run per 9.0 innings...it’s the lowest run support average in the Major Leagues among pitchers that have made at least five starts. NEARLY FLAWLESS VS. THE O’S--Danny’s last win came on May 17 vs. Baltimore, when he retired the first 20 Orioles he faced in a 1-0 triumph... Adam Jones broke up the bid at perfection with a two-out single in the seventh...Duff matched a career high with 7.0 innings (plus a batter in the eighth), allowing 2 hits with no walks and 2 K’s, pitching into the eighth for the first time in his career.