Guardians rout Royals 11-1 as series ends in split
The Royals won two of three in Cleveland before an 11-1 finale loss left them 10.5 games back in the AL Central as the Marlins arrive at Kauffman Stadium.
Royals take two of three before finale runs away in Cleveland
Kansas City won 3-0 on August 28 and followed it with an 8-3 win on August 29, taking the first two games of the series in Cleveland. The Guardians answered in the finale on August 30, breaking the game open for an 11-1 win to salvage a game in the set.
Guardians3-0Guardians8-3Guardians1-11The split leaves the Royals 3-2 in their last five games, but the finale loss came against the same club they're chasing in the standings, and it showed up in the table rather than the trend.
Ten and a half back, with the lowest elimination number in the Central
Kansas City sits at 62-76, 10.5 games behind the first-place White Sox (72-65) in the AL Central, with an elimination number of 15 — the smallest in the division. Cleveland is next up the table at 69-68, 3.0 games back with an elimination number of 23; Minnesota is 66-72, 6.5 back at 19; Detroit is 63-74, 9.0 back at 17.
Going 3-2 over the last five games didn't move the Royals off the bottom of the division, and the gap to fourth-place Detroit alone is 1.5 games. The elimination number puts a floor under how much longer the math stays alive.
Upcoming
The Royals host the Marlins tonight, with Randy Dobnak taking a 2-2 record and 1.92 ERA to the mound. His last start, on August 26 at Toronto, went 6.0 innings with 3 earned runs, 5 strikeouts, 1 walk and 6 hits on 92 pitches in a loss. Miami counters with Tyler Phillips, 3-6 with a 3.59 ERA, who worked 4.2 innings against Boston on August 25, allowing 1 earned run and 3 hits with 7 strikeouts and 3 walks on 84 pitches in a no-decision.
The market favors Kansas City, and the total points to a high-scoring night despite Dobnak's ERA sitting well under a run and a half below Phillips'. That gap suggests the bullpens, not the starters, are where the book expects the total to get paid off.