Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES Kansas City Royals (84-58) @ Cleveland Indians (69-74) Progressive Field - Monday, September 14, 2015 Game #143 - Road Game #68 Fox Sports Kansas City (HD) & KCSP Radio (610 Sports) UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES Tuesday, September 15 @ Cleveland Indians: RHP Kris Medlen (3-1, 4.58) vs. RHP Josh Tomlin (5-1, 2.85), 6:10 p.m. (CDT), FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Wednesday, September 16 @ Cleveland Indians: LHP Danny Duffy (7-7, 4.14) vs. RHP Danny Salazar (12-8, 3.57), 6:10 p.m. (CDT), FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Thursday, September 17 @ Cleveland Indians: RHP Yordano Ventura (11-8, 4.42) vs. TBA, 6:10 p.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 Steve Physioc and Steve Stewart, while Don Free serves as the producer/engineer...tonight’s game is being televised in High Definition on FSKC with Ryan Lefebvre and Rex Hudler...the pre and post-game shows, Royals Live, are hosted by Joel Goldberg and Royals’ Hall of Famer Jeff Montgomery. Royals vs. Indians TOUGH NIGHT IN PRIMETIME--The Royals drew the Sunday night assignment in the series finale in The Royals are 7-5 vs. the Tribe this year, 4-2 here in Pro- Baltimore and dropped an 8-2 decision last night to the O’s...the loss was KC’s ninth in its last 13 games gressive Field, taking two of three in each previous visit...KC and saw the lead in the A.L. Central return to 10 games over the Twins, while the race for the best record trails in the all-time series by a 313-328 count, which includes a in the American League remained at 2 1/2 games ahead of Toronto, who also lost on Sunday...Johnny 146-177 deficit in Cleveland, 73-103 in “The Pro.” Date Site Score WP LP Att. Cueto’s recent struggles continued, as the veteran righthander lost a fifth straight decision for the first time 4/27 @ Cle W, 6-2 Vargas Kluber 9,668 in his career, falling to 9-12 on the year, 2-6 since joining the Royals...he allowed four home runs for the 4/28 @ Cle W, 11-5 Finnegan Atchison 10,698 second time in his career, with Adam Jones providing the biggest blow, a 3-run blast in the opening frame... 4/29 @ Cle L, 5-7 Salazar Ventura 10,284 on the night, Cueto was solved for 11 hits and eight runs (seven earned) with a walk and three K’s...KC 5/5 KC W, 5-3 Vargas Salazar 29,099 5/6 KC L, 3-10 Carrasco Duffy 23,316 temporarily recovered from the early 3-0 deficit by plating a pair of second inning runs, but that would be 5/7 KC W, 7-4 Morales Kluber *38,271 it off of Wei-Yin Chen as the Royals dropped their third straight series, a 2015 first...Salvador Perez had 6/2 KC L, 1-2 Carrasco Davis 30,361 his seventh career 2-double game while Ben Zobrist added a pair of hits for KC’s lone multi-hit efforts. 6/3 KC W, 4-2 Vargas Kluber 29,899 6/4 KC L, 2-6 (8) Bauer Young 29,552 LONG WEEKEND ON THE BUMP--In dropping two of three to the Orioles, Kansas City’s pitching was 7/27 @ Cle W, 9-4 Volquez Anderson 13,611 solved for 28 runs in the 3-game series...the O’s plated 14 on Friday night, with 10 coming in the eighth 7/28 @ Cle W, 2-1 Davis Bauer (C) 18,064 7/29 @ Cle L, 1-12 Kluber (C) Guthrie 19,767 inning, which turned a 6-4 Royals’ lead into a 14-8 defeat...KC rebounded to plate 14 of its own on Saturday, 9/14 @ Cle highlighted by consecutive 5-run frames in the sixth and seventh, but the staff was touched for six in that 9/15 @ Cle affair...last night saw Johnny Cueto’s drought hit a handful when he was tagged for eight runs (seven earned) 9/16 @ Cle in 6.1 innings, including a career-high tying four home runs allowed...he also surrendered four roundtrippers 9/17 @ Cle 9/25 KC on August 21, 2010 in Dodger Stadium in a 3.0-inning stint...in the last five games, Cueto has been touched up 9/26 KC for 28 earned runs spanning 26.1 innings after allowing only six earned runs in his first 30.0 frames in a Kansas 9/27 KC City uniform (1.80 ERA)...on the weekend, Baltimore clubbed 10 home runs in the confines of Oriole Park. STILL THE BEST WITH TWO AWAY--Kansas City’s lone tallies last night came after two were away, which is when the club has done its best work as the Royals continue to lead the Majors in two-out hitting with a .278 average, which is 34 points higher than the big league average (.244)...KC is slugging at a 435 clip, third best in the Majors, second in the American League, while leading the bigs with runners in scoring position and two away at .284, which is 51 points up on the big league average...KC has plated 260 two-out runs, third most in the A.L...a season ago in 2014, Kansas City hit just .236 in two-out situations with 219 total runs...the Royals boast three of the top six individual two-out hitters with Lorenzo Cain (.380) leading the league, followed by Kendrys Morales (.339) in fourth and Eric Hosmer (.317), who is seventh...Morales (63), Hosmer (60) and Cain (60) rank third and tied for fourth, respectively in two-out hits...Morales, who is third in the A.L. in overall RBI (101) has driven more than half of those in with two outs, leading the Majors with 51, shattering Joe Randa’s (2000) previous club record of 46. PEN STILL RANKS HIGH--Despite a rough stop in Baltimore, the Kansas City bullpen remains the best statistically in the American League with a 2.65 ERA, trailing only cross-state rival St. Louis (2.56) for the Major League top spot...Royals’ relievers still have a combined record of 27-11 for a big league best winning pct. of .711...KC’s pen ranks tied with Pittsburgh for third in the Majors is saves with 48, trailing only St. Louis (56) and the Rays (52). SERIES DROUGHT HITS THREE--KC has lost three straight series for the first time this year falling to the White Sox (0-3), Twins (1-2) and at Baltimore (1-2)... prior to this the Royals had an 8-series unbeaten streak, going 7-0 with a split...KC is still 13-6-1 in its last 20 sets...on the year the Royals are 28-14 with five splits in the 46 series played...since June 7, when KC trailed the Twins by a game, the club has gone 54-35 for an 11-game turnaround in the standings. TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Edinson Volquez (13-7, 3.49) vs. RHP Carlos Carrasco (12-10, 3.70) 2015 2014 Career 2015 2014 Career Edinson Volquez vs. Indians 1-0 - 2-2 Major League Record 13-7 (3.49 ERA) 13-7 79-66 Carlos Carrasco vs. Royals 2-0 0-2 4-4 Major League Record 12-10 (3.70 ERA) 8-7 31-36 EDINSON VOLQUEZ takes the hill for his team-leading 30th start of the season, his 214th starting assignment and 219th career outing...he faces the Tribe for the third time this year and sixth in his career...the 32-year-old righty signed a two-year free-agent contract with the Royals on December 29, 2014. BACK ON TRACK--Edinson rebounded from an abbreviated outing earlier in the Volquez’s 2015 starts homestand and earned his 13th victory by working 7.0 innings last Tuesday in a 4-2 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 triumph over the Twins...he matched his win total (13) from a year ago, allowing two runs 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 on six hits with a walk and three K’s...Volquez allowed both runs in third inning, however, 4/26 @ Chicago L, 3-5 5.2 5 5 1 0 2 6 90-64 3-4 after that he allowed just two singles over his final four frames, retiring 11 of the final 13 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 hitters he faced...he completed 7.0 innings for the 10th time this season and first since 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 August 12 in a 7-4 loss to Detroit...he also recorded his 16th quality start of the season, 5/23 vs.