Game 154 Open Thread: Indians vs. Royals

When the Indians defeated the Royals last night, they finally managed to cross the .500 threshold.  If they are able to beat the Royals this afternoon, they could cross another .500 threshold – a winning record against an AL Central team.  This season, the Indians were owned by their fellow Central competitors – a 31-39 record against them, while it was 46-37 against the rest of baseball.  This includes a 9-10 record against the White Sox, a 7-11 record against the Tigers, a 6-9 record against the Twins, and a 9-9 record against the Royals.  Until this weekend, they sported a losing record against Kansas City as well; now they have a chance to finish 10-9 against them.  It would be their only winning record against an AL Central team (unless they’re able to do well against Minnesota this coming Monday-Thursday).

The Indians desperately need a win to keep pace with the other competitors for the second wild card.  The Angels are now just a half game behind the Astros, while the Twins remain 1.5 games back, and the Indians 3.  After today’s game, Houston goes out on the road for the rest of the season; they are just 29-46 away from Minute Maid Park.  So it’s entirely possible that the Indians may instead be chasing the Angels or the Twins as the season winds down.

In today’s game Danny Salazar faces Chris Young.  Salazar is coming off a loss in Minnesota where he gave up 3 ER on 5 hits over 6 IP.  A bad strike three call threw Salazar for a loop, and then he ended up surrendering the runs.  Even though it was a terrible call, there were already two outs…he needed to keep his composure and get out of the inning.  It seemed like a winnable game, but the Indians offense could not get rolling against Ervin Santana and the Twins bullpen.  When Salazar faced the Royals on September 16, he pitched well; he gave up just 1 ER on 4 hits over 7 IP and got more help from the offense.  When he faced Kansas City twice in early May and late April, he gave up 4 ER in each appearance.  Salazar needs to hold their lineup in check today and hope the Indians’ offense keeps rolling against Royals pitching.

Young has bounced between the bullpen and the rotation throughout the year, and today will make his first start since July 28.  The Indians have seen him numerous times this season, both as a reliever and as a starter.  In three relief appearances (September 14, May 6, and April 28) he’s allowed 0 ER against the Indians, and just 1 hit in 4.1 IP.  In two starts against the Indians, he had two dramatically different outings – on July 28 (his last start overall) he allowed 1 ER on 5 hits in 4.1 IP.  On June 4 he allowed 6 ER on 8 hits in 5 IP – every single player in the starting lineup had at least 1 hit off of him.

So keep your fingers crossed, rally caps on, and lucky whatevers near the TV…the Indians could really use a sweep today.

Lineups: