Game 88; Royals at Mariners

Looking to even the series

Today in Seattle, the Royals will be taking on the Mariners in the final game of a four-game series, looking to even the score after dropping game three 3-2 last night. The Royals’ offensive struggles have continued, and they have scored only ten runs in the first three games of the series. With questions spiraling around Kansas City about what to do at the trade deadline as we get closer to the All-Star break, these next few games will be pivotal.

Coming into today’s game, the Royals are seven games below .500 and have fallen to 40-47 on the year. The Royals’ offense is still dead last in the MLB for runs scored and sits 27th in baseball in OPS. They are 5.5 games out of a wild-card spot and are still searching for an offensive answer that can help them make a late-season playoff push.

This game will be particularly important for the Royals, as the Mariners currently hold the last AL wildcard spot. The Royals will need to fight for any wins they can get against teams like Seattle, who could be neck and neck with Kansas City as we get closer to September.

The Royals will send Seth Lugo to the mound, fresh off winning the team’s “pitcher of the month” award for June. Last month, Seth Lugo only allowed four runs over 28.2 innings, lowering his season ERA to 2.74. In 2024, Seth Lugo came in second for the AL Cy Young Award and threw over 200 innings. Kansas City needs a big game out of Lugo after their late-game collapse cost them the win in the seventh inning.

For the Mariners, Logan Evans takes the mound, a 24 year old rookie who will be making his eighth start of the season. Evans has a 3.38 ERA and has shown great finesse on the mound so far this year. Reminiscent of several Royals pitchers, Evans has a deep bag of pitches, with six offerings, all of which he uses at least 10% of the time. His fastballs are low 90s, and looking to attack the fast stuff early and often could be what gets the Royals out of Seattle with a big time win.

Offensively, Jac Caglianone gets a day off to reset, and John Rave will be in right field. Nick Loftin will move to the left, and Freddy Fermin gets his second game as the designated hitter. The Royals will simply need better production from the top of the order, and they need to get after a rookie pitcher coming off one of his worst starts of the year in Arizona.

The Mariners roll out several familiar faces, with the same lineup that they used in game one, but flipping Polanco and Arozarena in the lineup. Randy Arozarena has had batting practice against Kansas City so far this series, and keeping him quiet will be one of the biggest tasks Seth Lugo has faced this season.