By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A packed crowd is going to be on hand at Kauffman Stadium this evening as the Kansas City Royals take on the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.
The game marks the first postseason game at 'The K' since October 28th, 2015, when the Royals took a 2-0 World Series lead on the New York Mets behind a two hit complete game from starting pitcher Johnny Cueto.
After a week-plus spent handling their postseason business while living out of suitcases, the Royals can’t wait to enjoy some home cooking.
“We’re looking forward to getting back to the K, seeing the fans there,” said left-hander Cole Ragans. “It's going to be fun to have playoff baseball back in Kansas City. A split [in New York] is huge. It's basically like a brand-new series when we get to the K.”
After some rocky pitching in Game 1 of the series, the Royals pitching staff locked things down in Game 2, giving up just two runs on seven hits, while walking five, three less walks than in the first game.
Seth Lugo takes the ball in Game 3 and will look to build on his first postseason start in the Wild Card Series, when he allowed one run in 4 1/3 innings against the Orioles. Lugo brings a 3.00 regular-season ERA into the postseason as Kansas City’s No. 2 starter, and he posted a 3.36 ERA at Kauffman Stadium this year in his first season as a Royal. With the Royals playing their first home postseason game this year and first since 2015, they like their chances with the veteran Lugo on the mound, especially after he allowed just four runs in 14 innings this year across two starts against the Yankees.
For the Yankees, Clarke Schmidt will make his first career postseason start (fourth appearance) after pitching to a 5-5 record and 2.85 ERA in 16 starts this season. Schmidt’s campaign was interrupted by a right lat strain, but he returned in early September and pitched to a 3.65 ERA over his final five starts. Schmidt did not face the Royals this season.
The Yankees are going back to a righty starter in Schmidt, so look for the Royals to revert back to the lineup they’ve stuck with for the majority of games this October. Hunter Renfroe and Tommy Pham have both faced Schmidt only a few times in their careers, and Renfroe has the better results, but Pham’s at-bats so far this series might give him the edge.
With Kansas City starting the right-handed Lugo, look for the Yanks to field a similar lineup to the one they used against Michael Wacha in Game 1.
Game 3 of the ALDS will begin with first pitch at 6:08, pregame can be heard starting at 5:30pm on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM). The game will be televised on TBS and TruTV, and will be streamed on Max.