Merrifield bringing consistency to Kansas City offense
Kansas City Royals (52-101, fifth in AL Central) vs. Detroit Tigers (62-91, third in AL Central)
Detroit; Friday, 7:10 p.m. Eastern
PROBABLE PITCHERS: Royals: Ian Kennedy (2-8, 4.73 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 97 strikeouts) Tigers: Francisco Liriano (5-10, 4.54 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 101 strikeouts)
BOTTOM LINE: Whit Merrifield has notched a hit in 11 straight games for Kansas City. He'll look to keep it going against Detroit. The Tigers are 9-15 in games started by Liriano. Detroit is hitting .242 as a team this season, Nicholas Castellanos' mark of .299 leads the team. The Royals come into the contest looking to end a five-game skid. Kansas City has a collective on-base percentage of .306, led by Merrifield's mark of .367. In Thursday's game, the Tigers defeated the Royals 11-8. Zac Reininger got the win for Detroit, his first on the season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Alex Gordon has 115 hits for the Royals this season. He’s batting .242 on the year. Adalberto Mondesi has four home runs and nine RBIs while slugging .696 over his past 10 games for Kansas City. JaCoby Jones has 49 runs and 34 RBIs for the Tigers this year. Christin Stewart has 10 hits and is batting .263 over his past 10 games for Detroit.
LAST 10 GAMES: Royals: 4-6, .278 batting average, 4.40 ERA, outscored opponents by five runs. Tigers: 3-7, .222 batting average, 5.36 ERA, outscored by 25 runs.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.