Game two of the series in Sacramento is tonight, and the Royals have an opportunity to lock down their second series win in a row. Winning five out of six, and scoring quite a lot of runs in the process, has really calmed the doom and gloom down. Now the team needs to keep going strong as they try to climb back out of the early hole that they dug for themselves.
Tonight that means we will see Michael Wacha versus Luis Severino. The two veterans have had very different seasons so far. Wacha has been great to start the season posting a 2.51 ERA over his first five starts. He is probably not going to stay quite that good according to the underlying metrics, but he is still looking like a solid starter for the club to depend on. Severino, on the other hand, has a 5.17 ERA and is walking a little over 6 per 9 innings. His peak years of Cy Young contention are now in the distant past, but there is still talent and velocity in that arm, though we hope this is not the start that he finds it.
The Royals will be without Pasquantino, which means Carter Jensen is moving up in the lineup.