Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES Kansas City Royals (75-68) @ Cleveland Indians (76-66) Progressive Field - Monday, September 9, 2013 - 6:05 p.m. (CDT) Game #144 - Road Game #69 Fox Sporst Kansas City (HD) & KCSP Radio (610 Sports) UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES Tuesday, September 10 @ Cleveland Indians: RHP Jeremy Guthrie (13-10, 4.19) vs. RHP Zach McAlister (7-8, 3.97), 6:05 p.m. (CDT), FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Wednesday, September 11 @ Cleveland Indians: RHP James Shields (10-9, 3.43) vs. LHP Scott Kazmir (8-7, 4.17), 11:05 a.m. (CDT), No TV & 610 Sports Thursday, September 12: Off day in Detroit Friday, September 13 @ Detroit Tigers: LHP Danny Duffy (2-0, 1.85) vs. TBA, 6:05 p.m. (CDT), FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Saturday, September 14 @ Detroit Tigers: LHP Bruce Chen (7-2, 2.79) vs. TBA, 6:05 p.m. (CDT), MLB Network & 610 Sports Sunday, September 15 @ Detroit Tigers: RHP Ervin Santana (8-8+ tonight) vs. TBA, 12:05 p.m. (CDT), No TV & 610 Sports Every game can be heard in Kansas City on KCSP Radio (610 Sports) with Ryan Lefebvre and Steve Stewart mikeside in this series, while Don Free mans the board as the producer/engineer...tonight is being televised on FOX Sports Kansas City with Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler describing the action...the pre and postgame show on FSKC, Royals Live, is hosted by Joel Goldberg, who is joined by Royals Hall of Famer Jeff Montgomery. Royals vs. Indians LONG BALL LEADS TO ANOTHER COMEBACK--For the second consecutive game the Royals The Royals look to snap a 5-game slide vs. the Tribe in Pro- employed the home run ball to complete a come-from-behind victory, this time a 3-run shot by Eric Hosmer gressive Field, the lone win this year occurring on June 17 in the in the fifth inning turned a 2-1 deficit into a lead that wound up a 5-2 victory over the Tigers on Sunday...the first meeting of the season here...KC trails the season work by a victory gave KC the series over the A.L. Central leaders a day after Salvador Perez snapped a tie contest on 5-8 margin with 6 remaining...the Royals are 293-311 all-time vs. the Indians, 136-168 in Cleveland and 63-94 in Progressive. Saturday with a 2-run blast...yesterday’s win kept KC 3 1/2 games out in the Wild Card race and afforded Date Site Score WP LP Att. the club to pick up a game on second place Cleveland, now a 1 1/2-game deficit behind the Tribe with this 4/27 KC W, 3-2 Santana Kazmir 19,224 series commencing...Bruce Chen was solid as the starter, providing 7.0 innings of 5-hit, 2-run ball, the lone 4/28 (D) KC W, 9-0 Guthrie Masterson 22,001 blemish a 2-run homer in the third by Jose Iglesias...Kelvin Herrera and Greg Holland provided a scoreless 4/28 (N) KC L, 3-10 Kluber Smith 19,831 4/29 KC L, 0-9 Jimenez Davis 14,255 inning each out of the pen, with Holland earning his 40th save of the season...Hosmer’s blast, his second of 6/17 @ Cle W, 2-1 Crow Shaw 12,803 three hits on the day, gave the Royals their 40th comeback win of the year and enabled KC to take a 9-7 lead 6/18 @ Cle L, 3-4 Allen Herrera 14,853 on the season set with the Tigers...Alex Gordon and Billy Butler each contributed a pair of hits as Kansas 6/19 @ Cle L, 3-6 Masterson Mendoza 17,349 City completed a 5-2 homestand. 7/2 KC L, 5-6 Allen Collins 15,625 7/3 KC W, 6-5 Smith Allen 28,534 BEST SEPTEMBER START IN 28 YEARS--The Royals have opened September with a 6-2 mark, the 7/4 KC W, 10-7 Hochevar Shaw 16,792 hottest start to the season’s final month since the 1985 World Series championship club started the last month 7/12 @ Cle L, 0-3 Kluber Collins 24,077 7/13 @ Cle L, 3-5 Kazmir Guthrie 29,740 7-1 en route to a 22-14 finish that included an 18-12 September (4-2 in October)...for the first time in a non- 7/14 @ Cle L, 4-6 Hill Collins 15,432 strike season since 1989, KC recorded four winning months out of the first five of a year when August ended 9/9 @ Cle at 16-15...Kansas City had a 14-10 mark in April, scuffled to an 8-20 ledger in May, but rebounded for a 9/10 @ Cle 16-11 June and 15-10 July...the ‘89 campaign featured a 16-8 April, 14-13 May, 14-12 June, 13-14 July and 9/11 @ Cle 9/16 KC 21-8 August, before a 14-15 final month. 9/17 KC HOLLY JOINS ELITE GROUP--Closer Greg Holland hit a milestone figure on Sunday with his 40th save 9/18 KC of the season, becoming the fourth different hurler in franchise history to reach at least 40 in a year and accomplishing it for the sixth time overall in team annals...he joins Dan Quisenberry and Joakim Soria, who each hit the 40-mark twice and Jeff Montgomery, who saved 45 in 1993, tying Quiz’s club mark from 1983...Holland’s achievement is the 144th player in Major League history to record 40 saves, 71st in the American League. STAFF MAINTAINS TOP ERA--The Royals continue to pace the American League in team ERA with a 3.53 mark, bettering Oakland in the #2 spot at 3.59 and the Rangers in third at 3.67...KC received a quality performance from Bruce Chen on Sunday, allowing just 2 runs over 7.0 innings, the 83rd “quality start” by a Kansas City starter this year, matching Oakland for the third most in the American League behind Detroit (94) and Boston (85). OFF DAY ON THE HORIZON--The Royals have but three games remaining in the stretch in which they will have played 44 games in 44 days, a span that began in Minneapolis on July 30...Kansas City has gone a solid 24-17 through the first 41 games in this stretch, with the next day off taking place in Michigan on Thursday. LET’S SCORE FOUR--The Royals continue to put their best foot forward when at least four runs cross the plate, with yesterday’s 5-2 triumph giving KC a 56-12 ledger when hitting the magic number...KC has gone 9-1 in its last 10 contests of at least four tallies...conversely, the club is just 19-56 when scoring three or fewer. TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Ervin Santana (8-8, 3.33) vs. RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (10-9, 3.79) 2013 2012 Career 2013 2012 Career Ervin Santana vs. Indians 1-0 1-2 3-8 Major League Record 8-8 (3.33 ERA) 9-13 104-88 Ubaldo Jimenez vs. Royals 1-0 1-2 3-2 Major League Record 10-9 (3.79 ERA) 9-17 79-75 ERVIN SANTANA makes his 29th start of the season, his 265th career outing (262nd start) and 17th career start vs. Cleveland...this marks his third start vs. the Tribe this season...he was acquired from the Angels last October 31 for minor leaguer Brandon Sisk. Ervin’s 2013 starts FINAL WHEN A SHORT NIGHT’S WORK--Ervin scuffled through his shortest stint of the season last DATE OPPONENT SCORE IP H R ER HR BB SO TP-K LEFT Wednesday night against Seattle, taking a no-decision after pitching just 3.1 innings in the 4/3 at Chicago L, 2-5 6.0 5 4 4 3 1 8 98-66 2-4 4/8 Minnesota W, 3-1 8.0 8 1 1 0 1 7 104-75 3-1 Mariners’ 6-4 win in KC...Santana allowed 4 runs on 7 hits with 3 walks and no strikeouts, 4/14 Toronto ND, 3-2 8.0 7 2 1 1 3 4 109-74 2-2 but was bailed out when the Royals tied the game with 4 runs in the bottom of the fourth... 4/21 at Boston W, 4-2 7.0 6 2 2 0 0 7 105-68 4-2 4/27 Cleveland W, 3-2 7.0 6 0 0 0 0 5 97-66 3-0 after working out of a jam in the first, Erv was touched up for 2 runs in the third and then his 5/7 at Baltimore ND, 3-4 6.0 7 3 3 0 1 4 103-74 3-3 night ended after Seattle took a 3-0 lead in the fourth and upped it to 4-0 after his departure... 5/12 New York L, 2-4 6.1 8 4 4 2 0 4 102-71 1-4 5/18 at Oakland L, 1-2 7.0 4 2 2 0 3 5 101-62 1-2 it was Erv’s shortest start since his final outing of 2012, when he went 2.2 innings in an 8-7 5/23 Los Angeles L, 4-5 7.2 8 5 5 4 0 8 107-72 2-5 5/28 St. Louis L, 1-4 7.1 7 4 4 3 2 5 95-63 1-4 defeat in Texas...it was also the first time he failed to record a strikeout in a game he started 6/2 at Texas ND, 1-3 7.0 3 1 0 0 2 5 108-61 1-1 since July 21 of last year, when he pitched just 1.2 innings of a 9-2 loss to the Rangers.