Cleveland Guardians and Kansas City Royals meet in game 2 of series

Kansas City Royals (36-26, second in the AL Central) vs. Cleveland Guardians (40-20, first in the AL Central)

Cleveland; Wednesday, 6:40 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Brady Singer (4-2, 2.63 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 64 strikeouts); Guardians: Nick Sandlin (4-0, 2.77 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, 29 strikeouts)

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Guardians -124, Royals +104; over/under is 8 1/2 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The Cleveland Guardians host the Kansas City Royals, leading the series 1-0.

Cleveland is 21-7 at home and 40-20 overall. The Guardians have the seventh-best team ERA in baseball at 3.50.

Kansas City has gone 14-16 on the road and 36-26 overall. The Royals are 28-6 in games when they out-hit their opponents.

The teams play Wednesday for the second time this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Jose Ramirez has 13 doubles, a triple and 16 home runs while hitting .272 for the Guardians. David Fry is 12-for-32 with a double and four home runs over the past 10 games.

Bobby Witt Jr. leads the Royals with a .319 batting average, and has 16 doubles, six triples, 11 home runs, 21 walks and 46 RBI. Freddy Fermin is 12-for-32 with seven RBI over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Guardians: 7-3, .241 batting average, 4.60 ERA, outscored opponents by 16 runs

Royals: 3-7, .255 batting average, 4.86 ERA, outscored by eight runs

INJURIES: Guardians: Eli Morgan: 15-Day IL (elbow), Gavin Williams: 60-Day IL (elbow), Shane Bieber: 60-Day IL (elbow), Trevor Stephan: 60-Day IL (elbow), James Karinchak: 60-Day IL (shoulder)

Royals: Michael Wacha: 15-Day IL (foot), Brady Singer: day-to-day (illness), Michael Massey: 10-Day IL (back), Josh Taylor: 60-Day IL (biceps), Kris Bubic: 60-Day IL (elbow), Kyle Wright: 60-Day IL (shoulder)

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.