Kansas City Royals (23-24, third in the AL Central) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (31-20, first in the AL East)
St. Petersburg, Florida; Thursday, 3:10 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Brady Singer (2-3, 4.00 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 46 strikeouts) Rays: Shane McClanahan (1-0, 4.03 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 26 strikeouts)
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Rays -168, Royals +146; over/under is 7 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: Tampa Bay heads into the matchup fresh off a dominant performance by Tyler Glasnow. Glasnow threw eight innings, giving up zero runs on three hits with 11 strikeouts against Kansas City.
The Rays are 12-13 on their home turf. Tampa Bay is hitting a collective batting average of .231 this season, led by Joey Wendle with an average of .305.
The Royals have gone 11-11 away from home. Kansas City has hit 43 home runs this season, last in the American League. Carlos Santana leads the club with 10, averaging one every 16 at-bats.
The Rays won the last meeting 2-1. J.P. Feyereisen earned his first victory and Manuel Margot went 2-for-5 with an RBI for Tampa Bay. Tyler Zuber took his second loss for Kansas City.
TOP PERFORMERS: Austin Meadows leads the Rays with 23 extra base hits and is slugging .453.
Santana leads the Royals with 32 RBIs and is batting .250.
LAST 10 GAMES: Rays: 9-1, .259 batting average, 3.00 ERA, outscored opponents by 36 runs
Royals: 6-4, .223 batting average, 2.69 ERA, outscored opponents by six runs
INJURIES: Rays: Chaz Roe: (shoulder), Cody Reed: (thumb), Colin Poche: (elbow), Luis Patino: (finger), Oliver Drake: (forearm), Yonny Chirinos: (elbow), Jalen Beeks: (elbow), Chris Archer: (forearm), Nick Anderson: (elbow).
Royals: Daniel Tillo: (undisclosed), Jesse Hahn: (shoulder), Danny Duffy: (forearm), Hunter Dozier: (concussion).
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
The Associated Press
