Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES Kansas City Royals (59-38) @ Cleveland Indians (45-52) Progressive Field - Monday, July 27, 2015 Game #98 - Road Game #46 Fox Sports Kansas City (HD) & KCSP Radio (610 Sports) UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES 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 (7-6, 5.35) vs. RHP Corey Kluber (5-11, 3.59), 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. Indians EARLY RUNS ICE SERIES WIN--The Royals pulled the curtain on a 4-2 homestand yesterday with a 5-1 The Royals hold a 5-4 advantage in this season’s work vs. win over Houston and All-Star starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel...Kansas City wasted no time, plating four the Tribe, including a 2-1 mark from an April visit here...KC runs on Keuchel’s first 16 pitches, with Omar Infante and Cheslor Cuthbert providing two-run, two-out hits... trails in the all-time series with the Indians, 311-327, which in- KC plated its final run in the second with Lorenzo Cain’s 11th home run of the season...that was more than cludes a 144-176 deficit in Cleveland, 71-102 in “The Pro.” Date Site Score WP LP Att. enough for Yordano Ventura, whose week started by getting roughed up by Pittsburgh a week ago tonight and 4/27 @ Cle W, 6-2 Vargas Kluber 9,668 then subsequently optioned to Omaha (AAA) only to return to the big league roster a day later when Jason 4/28 @ Cle W, 11-5 Finnegan Atchison 10,698 Vargas suffered a season-ending elbow injury...Ventura worked 7.0 strong innings allowing just a run on six 4/29 @ Cle L, 5-7 Salazar Ventura 10,284 5/5 KC W, 5-3 Vargas Salazar 29,099 hits with no walks and five strikeouts...Franklin Morales and Luke Hochevar ran KC’s bullpen scoreless 5/6 KC L, 3-10 Carrasco Duffy 23,316 streak to 14.1 in a row with a perfect inning apiece...Kendrys Morales was 3-for-4 with a run scored, while 5/7 KC W, 7-4 Morales Kluber *38,271 Cain and Alex Rios each had a pair of knocks...the win returned the Royals to a season-high 21 games over 6/2 KC L, 1-2 Carrasco Davis 30,361 6/3 KC W, 4-2 Vargas Kluber 29,899 .500 and to their high-water 7 1/2-game advantage over the Twins, who lost two of three to New York. 6/4 KC L, 2-6 (8) Bauer Young 29,552 7/27 @ Cle THERE’S A NEW KID IN TOWN--Kansas City dipped its toes into the deadline week waters by snagging 7/28 @ Cle Cincinnati ace Johnny Cueto in exchange for a trio of minor league lefthanded hurlers, Brandon Finnegan, 7/29 @ Cle John Lamb and Cody Reed...the 29-year old Cueto went 7-6 with a 2.62 ERA in 19 starts for the Reds 9/14 @ Cle 9/15 @ Cle this season...he ranked eighth in the National League in innings pitched (130.2), ninth in ERA, fourth in 9/16 @ Cle opponents’ batting average (.196), fourth in WHIP (0.98) and is tied for 12th in strikeouts (120)...he earned 9/17 @ Cle his seventh victory of the season on Saturday night in Coors Field, tossing 8.0 shutout innings in Cincy’s 9/25 KC 5-2 win over the Rockies...since the start of 2011, Cueto’s 2.51 ERA in second-lowest among Major League 9/26 KC 9/27 KC pitchers, trailing only Clayton Kershaw’s 2.16 mark. TWO-OUT TALLIES ROLL AGAIN--One of the strong suits of Kansas City’s offense this year has been its success with two outs in an inning and that was never more evident than in the wins over the Astros on Saturday and Sunday...KC snapped Saturday’s deadlock in the 10th inning with a two-out knock from Alcides Escobar only to be trumped yesterday when all five runs off of Dallas Keuchel were scored with two away...the Royals lead the Majors with a .283 team batting average in two-out situations, while ranking first in the A.L. in two-out slugging pct. (.437), two-out on-base pct. (.344) and ranks second in runs (179)...Lorenzo Cain leads all A.L. hitters with a .390 two-out batting average, while Kendrys Morales and Eric Hosmer are tied for fifth with .331 marks...Morales is first in two-out RBI (34) and doubles (11), with Cain ranking third in slugging (.619). PEN ON ANOTHER ROLL--KC’s pen ran its current scoreless streak to 14.1 innings with 1-2-3 appearances by Franklin Morales and Luke Hochevar to wrap up yesterday’s win...dating back to Hochevar’s 1.2-scoreless innings a week ago tonight vs. the Pirates, the Kansas City relief corps has allowed only one earned run in its last 23.2 innings for a 0.38 ERA, while holding the opposition to a .197 average (14-for-71) with 22 strikeouts...the Royals have baseball’s best relief ERA at 2.06, while the Cardinals are next at 2.32...Kansas City has a 20-5 record out of the pen, easily the best winning pct. in the Majors at .800, with the Yankees next at 17-9 (.654). EXTENDED JOURNEY COMMENCES--Tonight opens an 11-day, 10-game journey that features a pair of Central Division stops sandwiched around a 4-game trip north of the border...following this stop in Cleveland, the club will then head north to Toronto and a 4-game set that runs Thursday thru Sunday with day games in the final two contests...the Royals will close the journey with an off day in Detroit a week from today before taking on the Tigers in a 3-game set at Comerica Park on August 4-6...KC will start the journey with the second best road winning pct. in the American League at .556 (25-20). ‘SERIES’LY SPEAKING--The Royals have gone 5-1 in their last six series, the lone ‘series’ loss the one-game stop in St. Louis last Thursday...over a longer stretch, KC has gone 7-2 with a split in its last nine sets contested...on the year, the Royals have gone 20-9 with four splits in the 33 series played. TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Edinson Volquez (9-5, 3.15) vs. RHP Cody Anderson (2-1, 1.91) 2015 2014 Career 2015 2014 Career Edinson Volquez vs. Indians 0-0 - 1-2 Major League Record 9-5 (3.15 ERA) 13-7 75-64 Cody Anderson vs. Royals first career appearance Major League Record 2-1 (1.91 ERA) - 2-1 EDINSON VOLQUEZ opens this 10-game road trip, taking the hill for his team-leading 21st start of the season, his 206th career assignment and 212th overall outing...he makes his second start of the year and fifth career vs. theTribe...he inked a two-year deal on December 29, 2014 with a mutual option for 2017. REMEMBER ME???--After pitching for the Pirates in 2014, Edinson faced his old Volquez’s 2015 starts mates last Wednesday in ‘The K’ and recorded a 5-1 victory...he earned his team-leading 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 ninth victory, allowing a run on eight hits over 7.2 innings with a walk and eight K’s, his 4/15 @ Minnesota L, 1-3 7.2 5 3 3 1 1 7 106-77 1-3 second-highest strikeout total of the season...Volky allowed a run in the third inning on a 4/20 vs. Minnesota W, 7-1 7.0 5 1 1 0 1 5 99-66 4-1 4/26 @ Chicago L, 3-5 5.2 5 5 1 0 2 6 90-64 3-4 sacrifice fly by Neil Walker, then after giving up consecutive hits to start the fourth, retired 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 14 of the next 15 hitters he faced, including nine in a row at one point...Eric Hosmer tied 5/12 @ Texas ND, 7-6 5.0 6 4 4 1 3 3 82-48 4-3 the game in the fourth with a solo homer, then KC scored four in the seventh to give 5/17 vs. New York W, 6-0 7.0 3 0 0 0 0 5 101-63 6-0 5/23 vs. St. Louis W, 3-2 6.0 4 2 2 0 3 1 84-53 3-2 Volquez the lead...he recorded his sixth home victory of the season, while his 7.2 innings 5/29 @ Chicago Cubs ND, 8-4 5.2 6 3 3 1 1 9 109-72 4-3 6/5 vs.