Kansas City Royals
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Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES San Francisco Giants (62-53) @ Kansas City Royals (60-53) Kauffman Stadium - Friday, August 8, 2014 Game #114 - Home Game #55 Fox Sports Kansas City (HD) & KCSP Radio (610 Sports) UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES Saturday, August 9 vs. San Francisco Giants: RHP Tim Hudson (8-8, 2.74) vs. RHP James Shields (10-6, 3.43), 6:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Sunday, August 10 vs. San Francisco Giants: RHP Tim Lincecum (9-7, 4.22) vs. LHP Danny Duffy (6-10, 2.39), 1:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Monday, August 11 vs. Oakland A’s: RHP Sonny Gray (12-5, 2.87) vs. RHP Yordano Ventura (9-8, 3.47), 7:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Tuesday, August 12 vs. Oakland A’s: LHP Jon Lester (12-7, 2.44) vs. RHP Jeremy Guthrie (8-9, 4.35), 7:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Wednesday, August 13 vs. Oakland A’s: LHP Scott Kazmir (12-4+ tonight) vs. LHP Jason Vargas (8-5+ tonight), 7:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Thursday, August 14 vs. Oakland A’s: RHP Jeff Samardzija (2-1+ tomorrow) vs. RHP James Shields (10-6+ tomorrow), 1:10 p.m., No TV & 610 Sports Tonight’s game is being broadcast in Kansas City on KCSP Radio (610 Sports) and the Royals Radio Network with Royals’ Hall of Famer Denny Matthews, Steve Physioc and Steve Stewart, while Don Free controls the dials as the producer/engineer...tonight’s game is being televised in High Definition on Fox Sports Kansas City with Ryan Lefebvre and Rex Hudler on the call, while Joel Goldberg hosts Hy-Vee Royals Live and is joined by Royals’ Hall of Famer Jeff Montgomery. Royals vs. Giants GUTHRIE BRINGS THE BROOM TO CHASE--Veteran hurler Jeremy Guthrie withstood an early The Royals and Giants meet in the regular season for the challenge from Arizona, but then stymied the Snakes from the third inning on to record 6-2 win last night.. first time since the 2008 campaign, when Kansas City took 2 of the victory gave the Royals their second-ever 3-game road sweep of a National League club since Interleague 3 in a series here...in fact, the Royals are 2-1 in each of the 3 sets play began in 1997 (St. Louis in June of 2008)...the triumph, which was KC’s 12th in the last 15 games, played between these franchises, with this San Francisco’s third- also propelled the Royals into the second Wild Card slot and they enter play tonight just 2 1/2 games out in ever visit here (2003 & 2008), while KC has only been to AT&T Park once (2005)...the Royals have two players still on the club the A.L. Central, while matching a season-high at seven over .500...when this stretch began, KC was two since the last time these teams met, with both Billy Butler and games below .500 and eight games out...as for Guthrie, he allowed two runs on seven hits through the first 15 Alex Gordon going 2-for-8 in that series, though Gordo was the D’Backs he faced, but after Jake Lamb drove in a run with his first big league hit in the third, Jeremy retired third baseman. the final 19 hitters of the game...it was the first complete game by a Royal this year and eighth of his career... Date Site Score WP LP Att. 8/8 KC Alex Gordon opened the scoring with a 2-run homer in the second and then KC tallied two more in the third 8/9 KC when Nori Aoki and Omar Infante singled, then advanced on a double steal and then scored on Sal Perez’s 8/10 KC single...all position players had at least one hit to cap KC’s 5-1 road trip through Oakland and Arizona. GUTHRIE’S NIGHT IN THE DESERT--@TheRealJGuts (Jeremy Guthrie’s Twitter handle) cruised through the final 19 D’Backs he faced last night to record his eighth career complete game, first-ever without allowing a walk and the fourth of the ninth inning victory variety, in recording the 6-2 win...he needed 54 pitches to navigate the first three innings, but slammed the door with just 55 pitches over the final six frames to complete the task...it was his third consecutive win after a 3-game slide to pull his season mark closer to .500 at 8-9...Jeremy’s last 9-inning effort in a win was just over a year to the day on August 5 last season against the Twins, a 13-0 triumph...Guthrie was also hit by a pitch in the ninth inning last night, the sixth time a KC hurler has been plunked at the plate, first since Brian Bannister in 2007...also zapped has been Jim Rooker (1969 & 1970), Dick Drago (1972) and Paul Splittorff (1972). HOME IMPROVEMENTS--The Royals return to Kauffman Stadium looking to improve on a 27-27 home ledger, though the club has won six of the last eight games contested here...Kansas City’s success to this point in 2014 has come away from ‘The K’ with the club coming off a 5-1 journey through Oakland (2-1) and Arizona (3-0)...KC is 33-26 on the road, tying these San Francisco Giants for the third most road victories in the Majors, trailing only Baltimore (35) and the Dodgers (36)...the Royals started this year 0-5 on the road, but has since gone 33-21 for the most road wins in baseball since April 15. THE DOCKET DWINDLES--The Royals enter tonight with 49 games remaining on the 2014 slate and at 60-53 and 2 1/2 games back, KC’s exact mark a year ago after 113 games, but the squad was 7 1/2 games removed from the tops spot...KC will play 32 of its remaining 49 games against clubs who are currently below .500, including Cleveland (6), the White Sox (7), Minnesota (7), Texas (6), Boston (4) and interleague work in Colorado (2)...as for clubs with winning records still on the schedule, the Royals have these three with the Giants, followed by four here against the A’s and then six with the A.L. Central leading Tigers and four to go with the Yankees (one here). WINNERS VS. SENIOR CIRCUIT--Last night’s win gave the Royals an 11-4 mark against the National League this year, already icing the first winning ledger against the other league since going 13-5 in 2008...this year Kansas City has gone 3-0 vs. the D’Backs, 2-0 vs. the Rockies, 2-1 vs. San Diego, 3-1 vs. St. Louis and 1-2 vs. the Dodgers...KC is 25-25 within the A.L. Central, winning 7 of the last 9 to get back to .500, while posting a 14-12 mark against the A.L. East and a 10-12 ledger vs. the West, the lone division the Royals are sub .500 mark against...KC has a chance to improve against the West when Oakland hits town for a 4-game set next week. TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Madison Bumgarner (13-8, 3.21) vs. LHP Jason Vargas (8-5, 3.69) 2014 2013 Career 2014 2013 Career Madison Bumgarner vs. Royals first career appearance Major League Record 13-8 (3.11 ERA) 13-9 62-47 Jason Vargas vs. Giants - - 0-1 Major League Record 8-5 (3.69 ERA) 9-8 59-63 JASON VARGAS makes his 21st start of the year, the 175th of his career and 195th outing overall...it’s his third Interleague assignment of the season, and third career start against San Francisco...the 31-year old signed a four-year free agent contract with the Royals on November 22. ROUGH FIFTH SPOILS RETURN--Jason made his first start in 25 days last Jason’s 2014 Starts Saturday afternoon in Oakland, but suffered an 8-3 setback after allowing 7 runs in the DATE OPPONENT SCORE IP H R ER HR BB SO TP-K LEFT 4/2 at Detroit ND, 1-2 (10) 7.0 5 1 1 1 1 6 106-69 0-1 fifth inning...Vargas retired the first 12 A’s hitters he faced, but then he was ambushed 4/7 Tampa Bay W, 4-2 8.0 4 1 1 1 1 2 110-74 4-1 in the fifth when 7 of the first 8 reached, including consecutive RBI singles by Alberto 4/13 at Minnesota ND, 3-4 7.0 5 2 2 1 3 4 112-70 3-2 4/18 Minnesota W, 5-0 7.0 7 0 0 0 1 4 113-71 5-0 Callaspo, Josh Reddick and Nick Punto...the veteran lefty departed after 4.1 innings, 4/23 at Cleveland ND, 3-5 6.0 6 3 2 0 2 2 100-63 3-3 being charged with 7 runs on 7 hits with no walks and 5 strikeouts...it was his shortest 4/29 Toronto ND, 10-7 6.1 10 5 5 1 0 5 94-64 2-5 5/4 Detroit L, 4-9 5.0 11 7 7 2 2 3 107-63 0-7 outing as a Royal and marked just the second time this year that he’s failed to complete 5/9 at Seattle W, 6-1 7.0 3 0 0 0 0 6 98-65 5-0 5.0 innings...Jason had missed the previous 3 weeks of action following an unscheduled 5/14 Colorado W, 3-2 6.2 5 2 2 1 1 8 103-66 3-2 5/19 Chicago L, 6-7 4.2 8 7 7 3 2 6 82-53 6-7 appendectomy on July 9 in St.