Kansas City Royals
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Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES Kansas City Royals (62-41) @ Toronto Blue Jays (53-52) Rogers Centre - Sunday, August 2, 2015 Game #104 - Road Game #52 Fox Sports Kansas City (HD) & KCSP Radio (610 Sports) UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES Monday, August 3: Off day in Birmingham, MI Tuesday, August 4 @ Detroit Tigers: LHP Danny Duffy (4-5, 4.28) vs. RHP Justin Verlander (1-3, 4.86), 6:08 p.m. (CDT), FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Wednesday, August 5 @ Detroit Tigers: RHP Johnny Cueto (0-0, 4.50) vs. RHP Buck Farmer (0-2, 8.50), 6:08 p.m. (CDT), FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Thursday, August 6 @ Detroit Tigers: RHP Yordano Ventura (6-7, 4.98) vs. RHP Anibal Sanchez (10-9, 4.77), 12:08 p.m. (CDT), FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Today’s game is being broadcast in Kansas City on KCSP Radio (610 Sports) and the Royals Radio Network with Steve Physioc and Steve Stewart, while Don Free serves as the producer/engineer...today’s game is being televised on Fox Sports Kansas City with Ryan Lefebvre and Rex Hudler...the pre and post-game shows, Royals Live, is hosted by Joel Goldberg, who is joined by Jeff Montgomery. Royals vs. Jays ROYALS TURN TABLE ON COMEBACKS--Kansas City held early leads in each of the first two games Today will mark the rubber game for the season series, with of this series, but wound up on the short end of the final score...yesterday KC also had an early lead, but each club winning three times, posting 2-1 ledgers in their home again the Jays rallied and eventually held a 5-1 lead before the Royals reversed course and had a pair of park...KC trails the all-time series by a 185-193 margin, includ- 3-run innings culminating in Kansas City’s biggest comeback of the year in a 7-6 triumph...the newest ing an 86-104 deficit in Toronto, 51-66 at Rogers Centre. Date Site Score WP LP Att. Royal, Ben Zobrist, clubbed home runs from each side of the plate and also doubled during KC’s 3-run 7/10 KC W, 3-0 Duffy Estrada 31,558 sixth inning to lead the comeback...Eric Hosmer remained en fuego, collecting key hits in both 3-run 7/11 KC L, 2-6 Buehrle Young 30,790 frames, winding up three RBI and extending his team best hitting streak to 14 games...Lorenzo Cain also 7/12 KC W, 11-10 Davis Schultz 31,962 7/30 @ Tor L, 2-5 Estrada Duffy 30,057 contributed with a double, hit by pitch and a pair of runs...Yordano Ventura survived consecutive home 7/31 @ Tor L, 6-7 (11) Hendriks Morales 29,389 runs from Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista in the fifth and gave up five runs on the day, but persevered to 8/1 @ Tor W, 7-6 Ventura Lowe 37,932 earn his sixth win of the year...Wade Davis was solved for his first home run in almost two years, which cut 8/2 @ Tor the KC lead to 7-6, but the Greg Holland closed the door on an attempted uprising by the Jays in the ninth for his 22nd save...the win upped Kansas City’s mark to 3-3 on this road trip and took its American League best record to 21 games over .500 as the only club with a winning pct. above .600 winning pct. (.602), while maintaining the 8-game lead in the Central by virtue of Minnesota’s late-inning comeback last night. ZOBRIST ZAPS JAYS--Newcomer Ben Zobrist certainly made his presence felt on Saturday, his third game in a Royals’ uniform...he homered from both sides of the plate, giving KC an quick 1-0 advantage in the first from the right side and then tying the game at 5-5 with a blast from the left side to ignite a 3-run eighth...it was the seventh time a Royal homered from both sides of the plate in the same game, first time since Wilson Betemit on June 10, 2010 in Minnesota...yesterday marked the fifth multi-homer game of Zobrist’s career and the second time he’s accomplished it from each side, also doing so in his last multi-dinger affair on April 13, 2014 in Cincinnati...yesterday’s effort was the second multi-homer game by a Royal this year, matching Kendrys Morales on May 22 at home vs. the Cardinals. THE LAND OF HOZ--Eric Hosmer continued his redhot roll with a pair of key knocks yesterday that featured three RBI, thus extending his current hitting streak to a team-high 14 games...he’s batting .500 during the streak (28-for-56) with 12 runs, two doubles, two triples, three homers and 13 RBI...he has gone 13-for-25 (.520) thru the first six games of this extended road trip, which has included a 3-run homer in the first inning of Monday’s win and then a game-winning solo homer with 2-out in the ninth on Tuesday in Cleveland...he’s also hit safely in 18 of his last 20 games at a .463 clip (37-for-80) with a 1.194 OPS to up his average 38 points to its current .318 mark. DAYDREAM BELIEVERS--The Royals have been as hot as the sun during recent day games, winning six of their last seven afternoon affairs and posting an 11-2 mark in the last 13...overall, Kansas City has the best daytime winning pct. in the American League at .647 (22-12), second best in the Majors behind the Mets (.706). THE BRUISE BROTHERS--Kansas City was plunked twice in yesterday’s affair upping its American League leading total to 56, just three shy of the Pirates for the big league bruise lead...Alex Gordon, who is coming up on a month of lost time due to a left groin strain, is still second in the A.L. with 12 plunkings, one more than his previous career high established last year, while Mike Moustakas, who was hit as a pinch hitter yesterday, is now tied for third with 11...Lorenzo Cain, popped for the eighth time this year on Saturday, is now tied for eighth...this year’s group is on a pace to get his 88 times, which would only be one shy of the club record set in 2007 (89). AUGUST STARTS WITH A WIN--The Royals opened the fifth month of the season with a comeback win on Saturday after closing out July with a 17-11 ledger, the most wins in a month this year, while gaining 3 1/2 games on the field in the A.L. Central...the Royals opened this year with a 15-7 April, followed by a 14-12 May and then 15-11 June...all told, this marks the first time since 1982 that KC has opened the season with four consecutive winning months. TODAY’S STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Edinson Volquez (10-5, 3.21) vs. R.A. Dickey (5-10, 4.27) 2015 2014 Career 2015 2014 Career Edinson Volquez vs. Blue Jays 0-0 0-1 0-3 Major League Record 10-5 (3.21 ERA) 13-7 76-64 R.A. Dickey vs. Royals - 0-0 3-3 Major League Record 5-10 (4.27 ERA) 14-13 94-92 EDINSON VOLQUEZ closes this four-game set in Toronto, taking the hill for his team-leading 22nd start of the season, his 207th career assignment and 213th overall outing...he makes his second start of the year and sixth of his career vs. the Jays...he inked a two-year deal on December 29, 2014 with a mutual option for 2017. WORKMAN-LIKE WIN--Edinson battled through 6.0 innings last Monday night in Volquez’s 2015 starts Cleveland, earning his 10th victory of the year, 10-5 over the Tribe...he was charged with DATE OPPONENT SCORE IP H R ER HR BB SO TP-K LEFT 4/9 vs. Chicago W, 4-1 8.0 4 1 1 0 1 5 95-58 4-1 three runs on six hits with five walks and four strikeouts...despite being handed a 4-0 lead 4/15 @ Minnesota L, 1-3 7.2 5 3 3 1 1 7 106-77 1-3 4/20 vs. Minnesota W, 7-1 7.0 5 1 1 0 1 5 99-66 4-1 early, Volky had to pitch out of jams in each of the first three innings, leaving the bases 4/26 @ Chicago L, 3-5 5.2 5 5 1 0 2 6 90-64 3-4 loaded in the second and runners at the corners in the third...the Tribe scored just one run 5/2 vs. Detroit L, 1-2 6.0 5 2 2 0 3 4 102-63 0-2 5/7 vs. Cleveland ND, 7-4 3.0 2 3 3 0 6 3 78-41 4-3 with Volquez on the hill...he did not allow a hit over his final 3.0-plus frames, but was on the 5/12 @ Texas ND, 7-6 5.0 6 4 4 1 3 3 82-48 4-3 5/17 vs. New York W, 6-0 7.0 3 0 0 0 0 5 101-63 6-0 hook for two walks that scored on a Francisco Lindor three-run homer off Joe Blanton in the 5/23 vs.