Batter's Box Interactive Magazine: Kansas City at Toronto, July 14-17

It looks like about half of the Omaha Storm Chasers will also be coming to town.

One should never take a game for granted, nor count one's chickens before they burst from the shell. But my gosh - when you take away ten players from the second worst team in the league, what's left is an Opportunity.

The Royals were already missing catcher Sal Perez. Now the two guys who replaced him are not available. One assumes that Sebastian Rivero will be one of the replacements, along with one of Omaha's catchers.

Hunter Dozier and Vinnie Pasquantino have been splitting time at first base since Evil Ways Santana was dumped on the Mariners. Dozier will be absent.

The rest of the infield - Nicky Lopez, Bobby Witt, Emmanuel Rivera - is intact. Witt is one exciting young player.

The entire outfield - Whit Merrifield, Michael Taylor, Andrew Benintendi - is staying home along with fourth outfielder Kyle Isbel. That leaves Edward Olivares, Ryan O'Hearn and someone from Omaha to fill in. They'll also need a DH.

The pitching situation isn't quite so desperate. Singer wasn't going to pitch in the series anyway. We would normally have seen Heasley, Greinke, Keller, and Lynch. But Heasley just went on the IL and Keller is staying home. I figure that Kris Bubic will probably start in Keller's place - he started against Detroit on Tuesday, did a decent job. They're also missing one of their better relief pitchers, RH Dylan Coleman.

The Jays took two of three from the Royals in Kansas City in early June. Ross Stripling and four relievers combined on a two-hit shutout in the opener, while Bichette, Guerrero, and Espinal roughed up Daniel Lynch for homers in the middle innings en route to an 8-0 win. It was another shutout the following evening, behind Alek Manoah and a trio of relievers. This time the score was 7-0, with run scoring doubles from Chapman, Tapia, and Hernandez along with four hits from Captain Kirk leading the offense. The Royals salvaged the finale on a Wednesday afternoon, driving Yusei Kikuchi out of the game while scoring three runs in the first inning. The Jays tied it up soon enough, but the Royals were loose in the Jays' bullpen all day - Toronto used seven relief pitchers in this one - and they eventually plated three runs against Richards and single runs off Cimber and Merryweather.

Kansas City at Toronto, July 14-17

Thursday, July 14 2022 @ 01:00 PM EDT