Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES Houston Astros (54-43) @ Kansas City Royals (57-37) Kauffman Stadium - Friday, July 24, 2015 Game #95 - Home Game #50 Fox Sports Kansas City (HD) & KCSP Radio (610 Sports) UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES Saturday, July 25 vs. Houston Astros: RHP Scott Feldman (4-5, 4.93) vs. LHP Danny Duffy (4-4, 4.24), 6:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Sunday, July 26 vs. Houston Astros: LHP Dallas Keuchel (12-4, 2.12) vs. RHP Yordano Ventura (4-7, 5.19), 1:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Monday, July 27 @ Cleveland Indians: RHP Edinson Volquez (9-5, 3.15) vs. RHP Cody Anderson (2-1, 1.91), 6:10 p.m. (CDT), FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Tuesday, July 28 @ Cleveland Indians: RHP Chris Young (8-6, 3.32) vs. RHP Trevor Bauer (8-7, 4.29), 6:10 p.m. (CDT), FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Wednesday, July 29 @ Cleveland Indians: RHP Jeremy Guthrie (7-5+ tonight) vs. RHP Corey Kluber (5-10+ tonight), 11:10 a.m. (CDT), 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, Steve Physioc and Steve Stewart, while Don Free serves as the producer/engineer...tonight’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. Astros LONG BALL SPOILS OVERNIGHT TRIP--The Royals and Redbirds squeezed a one-night “series” into Kansas City looks to avenge a 3-game sweep by the Astros the schedule last night, making up for a June 14 rainout in Busch Stadium...a pair of two-run homers by the in Houston during a visit in late June...the Royals are now 20- Redbirds spoiled the trip for Kansas City as the Royals fell by a 4-3 count...KC jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 25 all-time vs. the Astros, including an 8-13 mark here in KC... first on two-out RBI hits from Salvador Perez and Eric Hosmer, but the Cards rebounded with a game-tying Houston has won the six meetings vs. the Royals, including a 3-game sweep here last year...prior to this drought, Kansas City two-run shot by Randal Grichuk in the second inning and eventual game-winning two-run blast from Matt had won six in a row. Carpenter in the third, both off of starter and losing hurler Chris Young...the Carpenter home run capped the Date Site Score WP LP Att. scoring until the ninth inning when the Royals cut the deficit to a run on Omar Infante’s RBI triple with none 6/29 @ Hou L, 1-6 McCullers Blanton 20,419 out, but KC couldn’t get the tying run across the plate and absorbed just its fourth defeat in the last 16 games... 6/30 @ Hou L, 0-4 Keuchel Duffy 24,642 Alex Rios continued his resurgence with a 3-hit affair, while both Hosmer and Perez had a pair of knocks...the 7/1 @ Hou L, 5-6 Gregerson Herrera 25,848 7/24 KC loss trimmed Kansas City’s lead in the Central to 6 1/2 over Minnesota while Detroit remained 10 1/2 back. 7/25 KC ‘THE K’ THE PLACE TO BE--Prior to last night’s one-game stop in St. Louis, the Royals completed their 7/26 KC largest attended 3-game series of the year in ‘The K’ and it fell on a Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday vs. the Pirates...KC totaled 115,437 with the three sellouts, eclipsing the 115,280 who attended the June 19-21 weekend set vs. the Red Sox...the Royals have had 15 sellouts and 34 crowds in excess of 30,000 this year...2015 will be the first time since 1991 that KC will surpass the 2,000,000 mark, 12th time in team history...Kansas City is averaging 32,997 per game, which is an improvement of 10,107 compared to 49 dates last year...the Royals are on a pace to beat the team record of 2,477,700 set in 1989. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY--It was 32 years ago today when umpire Tim McClelland told George Brett that his bat had too much pine tar on it and created a show for the ages when KC’s future Hall-of-Famer exploded from the third base dugout at Yankee Stadium to “explain” his side of the story...fortunately common sense prevailed when American League president Lee MacPhail upheld Kansas City’s protest and ordered that the game be restarted from the point of Brett’s home run...the game was restarted on August 18 and officially ended with the Royals winning, 5–4 VIVA LOS REALES MANANA--The Royals will don “Los Reales” jerseys tomorrow night in celebration of Hispanic heritage...pre-game events will feature festivities at the Outfield Experience for all fans to enjoy...a Salsa Showdown will showcase local Mexican restaurants competing to win the title of “Best Salsa” in KC...also, tomorrow’s game will be a Kansas City first as it will be broadcast in Spanish locally on KDTD-1340 AM with Houston Astros’ announcers Francisco Romero and former big league catcher Alex Trevino. NEXT MAN UP--That has been the mantra of the 2015 Royals and despite losing leftfielder Alex Gordon to a left groin strain for at least eight weeks, the depth of the club has allowed manager Ned Yost to use two outfielder to fill the void...Jarrod Dyson provided the game-winning RBI in both wins over the Pirates, snapping a 1-1 tie on Wednesday with a bunt single...on Tuesday, Dice beat the Bucs with a 2-run single off of ace Gerrit Cole in the eighth inning...Dyson, a 50th round pick in the 2006 draft, has delivered five RBI, a double, inside-the-park homer, five stolen bases and three outfield assists since Gordo went down on July 8...the other replacement, rookie Paulo Orlando, has a double, two homers and six RBI when he’s been summoned since the Gordon injury. STRONG AT HOME--The Royals won the last two games of the Pittsburgh series, with Wednesday night’s rubber game victory giving Kansas City a 7-4 mark in series deciding contests this year, 5-2 in Kauffman Stadium...the series win over the Bucs gave KC an 11-3 record with two splits in the 16 sets contested in ‘The K’ this year... Kansas City’s 32 home wins are one behind Houston for the most in the American League, two behind the N.L. leading Cardinals. TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Scott Kazmir (5-5, 2.38) vs. RHP Jeremy Guthrie (7-5, 5.36) 2015 2014 Career 2015 2014 Career Scott Kazmir vs. Royals 0-1 0-2 4-8 Major League Record 5-5 (2.38 ERA) 15-9 96-84 Jeremy Guthrie vs. Astros - 0-1 2-2 Major League Record 7-5 (5.36 ERA) 13-11 90-105 JEREMY GUTHRIE makes his 19th start of the year, the 267th starting assignment of his career and 294th overall outing...Guthrie makes his first start of the year against the Astros and seventh of his career...the 36-year old is in the final year of a three-year contract he signed on November 30, 2012. DECISION-LESS VS. CHISOX--Jeremy opened his second half last Saturday in Guthrie’s 2015 Starts WHEN Chicago, tossing the first 5.0 innings in the Royals’ 7-6 win in 13 innings...he allowed three DATE OPPONENT SCORE IP H R ER HR BB SO TP-K LEFT 4/11 @ Los Angeles W, 6-4 7.0 6 4 4 1 1 2 94-64 6-4 runs on nine hits with a walk and three strikeouts, firing 88 pitches...five of the nine hits 4/17 vs. Oakland ND, 6-4 6.0 7 4 4 3 0 2 79-52 4-4 allowed came with two outs, including RBI singles by Melky Cabrera in the third and Adam 4/22 vs. Minnesota L, 0-3 5.0 6 3 3 0 6 3 98-49 0-3 4/28 @ Cleveland ND, 11-5 5.0 6 4 4 0 3 3 89-54 3-2 Eaton in the fourth, which preceded a game-tying sacrifice fly by Alexei Ramirez in the fifth. 5/3 vs. Detroit L, 4-6 6.0 11 6 6 1 0 1 85-58 0-6 LONGER REST--Guthrie will make tonight’s start on five days of rest, which has 5/9 @ Detroit W, 6-2 7.1 8 2 2 0 1 3 98-65 6-2 5/14 @ Texas W, 6-3 5.0 6 2 2 0 0 1 94-57 6-2 worked to his benefit this season...he’s gone 3-1 and posted a 4.02 ERA (21 ER in 47.0 5/20 vs. Cincinnati W, 7-1 6.0 5 0 0 0 2 3 94-61 5-0 5/25 @ New York L, 1-14 1.0 9 11 11 4 3 1 60-35 0-11 IP) in the eight starts where he’s had five days or more in-between outings, while he’s 4-4 6/2 vs. Cleveland ND, 1-2 5.2 2 1 1 1 1 1 105-63 1-1 with a 6.52 ERA (39 ER in 53.2 IP) in his 10 starts on regular rest.