Merrifield bringing consistency to Kansas City offense
Cleveland Indians (90-71, first in AL Central) vs. Kansas City Royals (58-103, fifth in AL Central)
Kansas City, Missouri; Sunday, 3:15 p.m. Eastern
PROBABLE PITCHERS: Indians: Carlos Carrasco (16-10, 3.42 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 225 strikeouts) Royals: Eric Skoglund (1-5, 5.40 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 46 strikeouts)
BOTTOM LINE: Whit Merrifield is on a roll for Kansas City. He's hit safely in 19 straight games and is batting .321 in that period. The Royals have gone 4-8 in games started by Skoglund. Kansas City is hitting .246 as a team this season, Merrifield's mark of .304 paces the team. The Indians enter the contest with a 13-game lead over the Twins in the AL Central. Cleveland's lineup is averaging 4.9 RBIs per game this season. Edwin Encarnacion leads the team with 107 RBIs. The Royals won 9-4 in Saturday's meeting, Jake Junis earned his ninth win of the year.
TOP PERFORMERS: Jose Ramirez is batting .274 with a .377 on-base percentage and .559 slugging percentage in 156 games this season for the Indians. Jason Kipnis has three home runs and eight RBIs while slugging .600 over his past 10 games for Cleveland. Salvador Perez is hitting .237 with 120 hits and 27 home runs in 128 games this year for the Royals. Adalberto Mondesi has five home runs and eight RBIs while slugging .698 over his past 10 games for Kansas City.
LAST 10 GAMES: Indians: 5-5, .298 batting average, 4.07 ERA, outscored opponents by 12 runs. Royals: 6-4, .254 batting average, 4.30 ERA, outscored opponents by one run.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.