Game Thread; Royals at Cardinals, Game #62

Game one of the doubleheader!

After some abysmal weather in the St. Louis area resulted in the cancellation of the game on Wednesday, the Royals will take on the Cardinals twice today in a traditional doubleheader. Kansas City is coming off one of the most impactful wins of the season on Tuesday, where they overcame a 7-2 deficit to come away with a big 10-7 victory. Now, the Royals look to at least split the doubleheader games, which would result in them coming away with a 3-3 record in the season series against their I-70 rivals, the Cardinals.

In game one of the series, Royals’ top prospect Jac Caglianone made his heavily anticipated debut, and despite him going 0-5, the Royals offense woke up, scoring 10 runs, 6 of which came in the fifth inning. Kansas City has had one of the worst offenses in baseball so far this year, but on Tuesday, they seemed to find a spark after a big leadoff home run by Nick Loftin, and a barrage of hits came in the fifth and sixth innings. Now the Royals’ next test will be to find consistency to carry that success forward into their two games today.

Jac Caglianone will be back in the lineup today, still hunting for that elusive first MLB hit. Despite the 0-5 line Caglianone posted on Tuesday, he hit the ball hard, and it does not feel like it will take long for him to find the outfield grass… or better yet, the upper deck. With other guys hopefully heating up at the plate, now is the perfect time for Jac to take an easy approach at the plate and get a feel for himself against major league pitchers.

Pitching-wise for the Royals, star rookie Noah Cameron will take the mound for his fifth start of the year, and will be truly tested by a Cardinals lineup he has already faced once this year. This game feels like a big test for Cameron, as he has had so much success early in his career, but many have wondered how he will maintain this level of success. Today feels like a big day for Cameron to prove himself, as the Cardinals have already faced Cameron, and they will have a full scouting report on him. Noah Cameron will have to prove that he can mix it up and continue to keep hitters off balance as teams get a better idea of his game.

For the Cardinals, Miles Mikolas will take the mound for his 12th start of the year and will look to repeat the success he had against the Royals earlier this year. On May 17th, Mikolas faced the Royals and was able to give the Cardinals six innings of scoreless ball, allowing the Cardinals to come away with a big 1-0 win in Kansas City. Teams this year have had a lot of success hitting the fastball of Mikolas, and if the Royals can lay off his big curveball and slider, they will find the success they couldn’t get in May.

The Royals will send out the same first six batters they used in game one of the series, with Garcia remaining in the three hole, Salvy moving down to five, and Jac Caglianone hitting sixth. Today, we will get our first look at Jac Caglianone with the glove. He gets the start in right field, a position he has been working on all season, just for this scenario. Jonathan India has 10 hits in his last 28 ABs, and his OBP has reached .333, exactly what the Royals have been looking for him to do all year. Waters moves to left field, and Michael Massey returns to the lineup at second base.

The Cardinals run out almost the exact same lineup we saw from them on Tuesday, but with Ivan Herrera moving to DH (likely so he can be the catcher in game two), Pedro Pages goes behind the plate and will hit ninth. In right field, Ryan Vilade gets the start, entering today’s game with just one major league AB so far this year. No Victor Scott at CF could open up the outfield for the Royals to find some XBH into the gaps in game one.