Guardians, Royals battle with eye on wild-card race

When the Kansas City Royals host the Cleveland Guardians in the rubber match of a three-game series on Sunday afternoon, both teams will have plenty on their minds.

In addition to a tight AL wild-card race, both teams are monitoring the fast-approaching trade deadline on Thursday.

After the teams split a doubleheader on Saturday, Cleveland sits three games behind the final wild-card spot, while Kansas City is 4 1/2 games back.

The Royals won the first game on Saturday 5-3 in the 10th inning on Jonathan India’s three-run, walk-off homer against Emmanuel Clase before the Guardians won the nightcap 6-4.

Cleveland left fielder Steven Kwan hit a two-run home run in the second game, giving him three homers in his last three games. He hit only six in his first 95 games.

Guardians infielder Brayan Rocchio started at second base for the first time in his career. He moved from shortstop to make room for Gabriel Arias, who returned from the injured list.

“Brayan Rocchio is one of the best infielders in the game, so I have all the confidence in the world,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.

The Royals played the second game without right fielder Jac Caglianone, who suffered a left hamstring strain in the series opener. The team is awaiting more information before determining if he’ll need to go on the 10-day injured list.

“Don’t know the severity and just know the exam didn’t match the image,” Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said. “The image was better than the exam, so that is really encouraging.”

To help address Caglianone’s possible absence, Kansas City added to its outfield on Saturday by acquiring Randal Grichuk from the Arizona Diamondbacks for reliever Andrew Hoffmann.

Grichuk, 33, batted .240 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs with Arizona. The Royals hope the right-handed hitter can provide some much-needed balance to their lineup.

“When you have a lot of left-handed bats and not the right-handed bats that have proven that they can hit left-handed pitching really well, at times you can feel a little shorthanded,” Picollo said. “This is just trying to make our roster deeper, make us better, and allow us to be more competitive.”

Sunday’s series finale will feature a pair of left-handers as Cleveland’s Joey Cantillo (2-0, 3.91 ERA) faces Kansas City’s Noah Cameron (4-4, 2.61).

Cantillo, 25, allowed one run on two hits over five innings while throwing a season-high 95 pitches in a 6-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday. He has a 4.08 ERA in four starts since replacing Luis Ortiz in the rotation on July 3.

“We’ve seen a couple outings now that the more I’m filling up the zone, the more I’m challenging guys, good things are going to happen,” Cantillo said.

Cantillo is set to make his first career start versus the Royals. He has made three relief appearances covering 4 2/3 innings against them, allowing two runs in 4 2/3 innings.

The 26-year-old Cameron yielded four runs over six innings in a 12-4 win over the Chicago Cubs on Monday. He struck out seven with no walks.

Cameron owns a 2.22 ERA with a 27-to-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 24 1/3 innings in four starts this month. He will face Cleveland for the first time in his career.

–Field Level Media