Two teams with a combined 15 games under .500 collide Thursday, and somehow Kansas City's pitching staff is in even rougher shape than its record.
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Best BetMets
New York's the home side and, for all its dysfunction, still has more length in the bullpen and a lineup that just scored 10 runs in a comeback win than a Royals team that isn't even naming a starter. Kansas City's rotation crunch — no Ragans, a shut-down Bubic, a bereavement-list starter — makes the road side tougher to trust in a vacuum, even with Bobby Witt Jr. in the middle of the order. Lean on the more stable pitching staff and back the Mets outright.
Royals
+Bobby Witt Jr. named an All-Star Game starter again
+Front office reportedly planning a retool, not a fire sale
−Rotation gutted: Ragans out for the year, Bubic shut down
−Lost 4 of last 5, including a 22-1 blowout
Mets
+Won a wild 10-9 comeback over Atlanta last time out
+Interim manager Andy Green brings a fresh clubhouse tone
−Fired manager Mendoza mid-season amid a last-place standing
−Manaea carrying a 5.16 ERA into his next start
Sean Manaea takes the mound for New York trying to snap out of a brutal stretch — he's 1-4 with a 5.16 ERA and just got roughed up for 6 runs in 5 innings against Atlanta on July 4. Kansas City hasn't named a starter for Thursday's opener, which says plenty about a rotation that lost Cole Ragans to season-ending elbow surgery and watched Kris Bubic get shut down with a cortisone shot in the same week.
The Royals are getting by without three regulars — Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino and Kyle Isbel are all still working their way back — while the Mets are missing Marcus Semien for another month with a Grade 3 hip flexor strain. Neither club looks anything like a trade-deadline buyer right now, and the market treats this one exactly like the last-place tilt it looks like on paper.
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KC Royals
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Strip away the standings and there's still a real story here: both dugouts changed hands recently, just in different ways. New York fired Carlos Mendoza in late June and handed the keys to interim manager Andy Green, while Kansas City's Matt Quatraro is fielding questions about his own job security after a 22-1 humiliation at the hands of the White Sox.
Kansas City Royals
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
New York Mets
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Bobby Witt Jr. remains the one non-negotiable bright spot for Kansas City — he's heading to his third straight All-Star Game, this time as a starter, and he's about the only reason the Royals aren't blowing the whole roster up before the deadline. Everything else is running thin enough that Quatraro benched Salvador Perez for a 'mental breather' last week, only for Perez to push back publicly before both sides called it a hip issue and moved on.
Kansas City Royals
Jul 8?@ Mets—
Jul 7?@ Mets—
Jul 6?vs Phillies—
New York Mets
Jul 8?vs Royals—
Jul 7?vs Royals—
Jul 6?@ Braves—
Recent form.
New York's answer to its own chaos was a doubleheader split against Atlanta: an ugly 3-14 loss in the opener, then a wild 10-9 comeback in game two. That swing captures where both of these teams are right now — capable of the ugly and the entertaining, sometimes on the same day, with not much more than pride on the line heading into Thursday's series opener.
