Kansas City Vs. Detroit 7-7-11
The Kansas City Royals haven't won three straight games since early May. Facing the struggling Detroit Tigers may provide a good opportunity to accomplish the feat again.
Kansas City also seeks its third consecutive home victory Thursday night when it opens a four-game series against Detroit.
The Royals (36-51) still have the AL's worst record despite winning for the third time in four games with a 4-1 victory against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday. They had lost 11 of their previous 13 before Sunday, with the only two victories coming in their last two games at Kauffman Stadium on June 25-26 against the Chicago Cubs.
Rookie Eric Hosmer homered Wednesday for the third time in four games for Kansas City, which hasn't won three straight since winning four in a row April 29-May 3.
Hosmer is 8 for 18 with six RBIs in his last four games, but he went 0 for 8 when Detroit swept the Royals in a rain-shortened two-game set May 13-14.
"We're struggling to win ballgames, but we're playing good," manager Ned Yost told the team's official website Wednesday. "That doesn't make any sense, but that's the case.
"It all revolves around starting pitching, and when our starting pitching is good, we're going to be right in the middle of it."
Yost hopes Danny Duffy (1-3, 5.09 ERA) can put a rough outing behind him. The rookie tied season highs by allowing five runs and nine hits in five innings of a 9-0 loss at Colorado on Friday after giving up six runs over 16 2-3 innings in his previous three starts.
Duffy had perhaps his best outing in his last home start, yielding two runs in a season-high seven innings of Kansas City's 3-2 win over the Cubs on June 25.
The left-hander has never faced the Tigers (46-42), who have lost six of their last eight.
Detroit salvaged the finale of a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, with Miguel Cabrera's two-run homer in the seventh inning helping a 5-4 victory.
Cabrera's home run provided his third hit - and first two RBIs - in his last seven games. He's 3 for 23 (.130) during that span, but he is a .342 career hitter in 60 games against the Royals.
Detroit's offense had totaled one run in losing the first two against the Angels.
"We swung the bats pretty good the last couple days," Cabrera said. "We just needed to keep swinging the bat and wait for something to happen. If you try too hard, it's not going to happen."
Max Scherzer (9-4, 4.90) will make his fourth and final attempt to reach 10 wins before the All-Star break for the first time in his career.
Scherzer allowed nine runs - six earned - in two-plus innings of a 15-3 loss to San Francisco on Saturday, dropping him to 0-2 with an 8.40 ERA in his last three starts. He's allowed at least five runs in five of his last eight outings, with his ERA increasing nearly two full runs from 2.98 during that span.
Against the Royals, however, Scherzer has been effective. He beat them 5-2 on April 8 after allowing one run in six innings, improving to 3-2 with a 2.52 ERA in six career meetings.
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