The Kansas City Royals will take on the Detroit Tigers, who have held the third-best record in MLB since June.
Wednesday's sweep of the San Francisco Giants may have given the Kansas City Royals the momentum boost they need heading into their next series against the AL Central rival Detroit Tigers, who have been 26-16 since the start of June and hitting an MLB-best 74 home runs.
Kansas City has been on a roll even before this week, taking two out of three games against the San Diego Padres to begin the second half of the season.
The Royals went just 2-4 against Detroit after the first two times both teams faced off, suffering a three-game sweep in April while taking two out of three games in May.
During their May 8 rubber matchup, Kansas City left-hander Kris Bubic allowed four hits, four walks and three earned runs while striking out five Tigers in 5.2 innings of work.
"The walks were obviously discouraging for him, especially walking the nine-hole guy twice, you don't want to do that, setting up the top of the order," manager Matt Quatraro told reporters. "But I mean, he competes, he keeps us in the game every time."
Meanwhile, the offense plated two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning as Michael Massey reached home on a fielding error and Kyle Isbel scored off an RBI single by Maikel García.
The Royals' bullpen locked in as well, combining for a single walk and allowing no further runs, which paved the way for Nick Loftin to score and give the Royals a 4-3 victory in the ninth off an RBI single by Isbel.
"Izzy's great at-bat against [Kyle] Finnegan, obviously helped out by the missed play but for Mikael, that was bang bang bang, really good at-bats against a good pitcher,"Quatraro said.
Kansas City will meet Finnegan once again this series. The 34-year-old reliever holds a 2.40 ERA and 1.44 WHIP and has collected 35 strikeouts in 45 innings pitched.
On the starting end, Detroit will trot out right-hander Troy Melton against the Royals' Randy Dobnak in tonight's opener.
In Dobnak's most recent outing last Saturday against the San Diego Padres, he only surrendered one run despite giving up four hits and four walks in 4.1 innings of action. He has now compiled a 1.93 ERA, closely matching Melton's 1.80.
The Royals will still be at a disadvantage though as star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is out for the series with low back tightness after exiting Monday's contest during the fifth inning.
Regardless, the Royals' lineup lies in good hands with catcher Salvador Perez tying George Brett's franchise record of 317 home runs on Wednesday.
