While Seth Lugo looks to turn around his recent fortunes on the mound for the Kansas City Royals, fellow right-hander Merrill Kelly still is searching for his first win as a member of the Texas Rangers.
Lugo aims to right himself and help the host Royals to a fifth straight win on Tuesday night when they meet the Rangers, who have lost nine of their past 11 games.
When Lugo (8-6, 3.77 ERA) signed a two-year contract extension worth approximately $46 million in late July, he owned a 2.95 ERA. In four starts since then, the 35-year-old is 1-1 with an 8.84 ERA.
Lugo has allowed 13 earned runs, 26 hits — including six homers — and 14 walks while lasting just eight innings in his last two outings. He gave up seven runs (six earned), including a grand slam, during Wednesday’s 8-7 home loss to Washington.
“Pretty bad,” Lugo said. “Just need to execute better.”
Lugo likely couldn’t have been much better than he was on June 17, when he allowed a run, three hits and struck out nine in six innings of Kansas City’s 6-1 victory over Texas. He is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA in two career appearances (one start) against the Rangers.
The Royals improved to 4-0 vs. Texas this season with Monday’s 4-3 win in the opener of a four-game set between teams trying to reach a wild-card position in the American League.
Mike Yastrzemski, Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia each went deep for Kansas City, which is 6-1 on a 10-game homestand. The Royals have hit 40 home runs while winning 17 of their last 26 games overall.
“When you’re playing against those teams that are fighting for a spot in the playoffs, it doesn’t matter, because you want to go out and beat them,” Garcia told FanDuel Sports Network.
Yastrzemski, acquired from San Francisco before the trade deadline last month, is 4-for-9 with two homers in the last three games. He’s 10-of-46 against Kelly (9-7, 3.36 ERA), however, and four of those hits left the park.
Kelly is 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in three starts since Texas acquired him from Arizona, but he can build on the first quality start with his new club. That happened to come against the Diamondbacks on Wednesday, when he yielded two runs on seven hits over six innings and was in line for the win before his former team scored four times in the ninth for a 6-4 victory.
Kelly has allowed three home runs his last two starts. Rangers pitching, meanwhile, has been taken deep 21 times while permitting at least one homer in eight consecutive contests.
In his first appearance against the Royals, Kelly will try to help Texas turn things around after losing for the ninth time in 11 games Monday.
“We’re in a rut,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “We’ll come out (Tuesday) and keep grinding. We know how important these games are.”
The Rangers’ Corey Seager had three hits Monday and totaled five in the last two after going hitless in the four straight contests. However, he is 1-for-6 against Lugo.
Kansas City star Salvador Perez could be back in the lineup after he was scratched Monday due to an illness.
–Field Level Media
