The NFL draft will impact the start of the Kansas City Royals’ road series against the Detroit Tigers this weekend.
The teams will play a rare Friday matinee to open the three-game series due to the massive crowds in Detroit for the draft.
The Tigers’ Reese Olson (0-3, 3.80 ERA) is set to make his fifth start of the season. The 24-year-old right-hander faced the Minnesota Twins in his latest outing, and he gave up four runs (two earned) in five innings during a 4-3 loss on Saturday.
In his lone home outing this season, Olson held the Texas Rangers to one run in 6 1/3 innings while recording eight strikeouts on April 15. He took the loss in that one, as well.
Olson faced Kansas City twice last season as a rookie. He didn’t get a decision while posting a 3.09 ERA.
Detroit is coming off a successful 4-2 road trip, though it dropped the finale to Tampa Bay on Wednesday, 7-5. The Tigers rallied to take a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning, but the Rays scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to regain the advantage before holding on.
“The series wins are nice,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “We have an off day (Thursday), we’re going home and we’re happy with the road trip. It didn’t end well. But keeping things in perspective, we’re doing some good things and we’re winning series, which is key. But you want to get greedy when you have a chance to sweep them, especially when you have the lead in the middle part of the game. They came up bigger in the big moments and won this game.”
Riley Greene and Mark Canha have carried the Detroit offense lately. Greene had a two-homer game on Tuesday and is tied with Canha for the team lead with five long balls. Greene has scored 21 runs, tied for second in the American League. Canha also homered twice in the Rays series.
The Tigers are 4-7 at home this season.
“We want to win a little more, but we’re taking wins when we can,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “We need to keep moving forward and keep winning.”
Seth Lugo (3-1, 2.03 ERA) will start the series opener for Kansas City. Lugo posted four consecutive quality outings before his latest start, when he allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday and took his first loss of the season.
The 34-year-old right-hander surrendered his first two homers this season during that outing.
“Couple of missed locations, and that’s what happens at this level,” he said.
Lugo won his only career start against the Tigers, giving up two runs in six innings in a 5-4 win in Detroit on July 21, 2023.
Kansas City has won three straight, all at Toronto’s expense. The Royals captured a 2-1, rain-shortened victory on Thursday in the finale of a four-game series.
After five innings, the game was delayed and never resumed. The teams waited more than 3 1/2 hours before it was called.
“What was getting frustrating to me was just like, ‘All right, let’s make the decision,'” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “One way or the other, tell us to get out there and play or tell us to go home.”
Kansas City’s Salvador Perez blasted his seventh homer of the season, a two-run shot, in the first inning. He leads the AL in batting average (.352), RBIs (25) and on-base-plus-slugging percentage (1.036).
–Field Level Media