Royals look to end 5-game road skid, play the Yankees
Kansas City Royals (39-61, fifth in the AL Central) vs. New York Yankees (68-33, first in the AL East)
New York; Saturday, 2:05 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Jonathan Heasley (0-0); Yankees: Nestor Cortes (8-3, 2.48 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 106 strikeouts)
LINE: Yankees -309, Royals +248; over/under is 8 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Kansas City Royals will aim to stop a five-game road slide when they face the New York Yankees.
New York is 68-33 overall and 39-12 in home games. The Yankees have the third-best team ERA in MLB play at 3.16.
Kansas City has gone 17-31 on the road and 39-61 overall. The Royals have the ninth-ranked team on-base percentage in the AL at .308.
The teams meet Saturday for the sixth time this season. The Yankees are ahead 5-0 in the season series.
TOP PERFORMERS: Aaron Judge has 41 home runs, 49 walks and 89 RBI while hitting .297 for the Yankees. DJ LeMahieu is 11-for-33 with two doubles, a home run and four RBI over the last 10 games.
Bobby Witt Jr. leads Kansas City with 14 home runs while slugging .456. MJ Melendez is 11-for-33 with a home run and three RBI over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Yankees: 5-5, .257 batting average, 3.77 ERA, outscored opponents by 15 runs
Royals: 3-7, .265 batting average, 3.21 ERA, outscored by 12 runs
INJURIES: Yankees: Giancarlo Stanton: 10-Day IL (achilles), Michael King: 60-Day IL (elbow), Miguel Castro: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Luis Severino: 15-Day IL (lat), Chad Green: 60-Day IL (elbow), Ben Rortvedt: 60-Day IL (oblique), Stephen Ridings: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Zack Britton: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Royals: Angel Zerpa: 15-Day IL (knee), Bobby Witt Jr.: day-to-day (hamstring), Edward Olivares: 10-Day IL (quadricep), Daniel Lynch: 15-Day IL (blister), Jon Heasley: 15-Day IL (shoudler), Jake Brentz: 60-Day IL (flexor), Adalberto Mondesi: 60-Day IL (knee), Tyler Zuber: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
