The Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers, the reigning World Series champions, will begin a three-game series in Arlington, Texas, on Friday night. Both clubs have had their fair share of collapses in June. So far this month, both teams have struggled to records of 7–10. The Rangers are eighth and a half games behind the Seattle Mariners in third place in the American League West, having dropped five of their last six games. The Royals sit sixth in the AL Central, six games behind the Cleveland Guardians, despite their dismal record of 3-8 during their previous 11 games.
For Kansas City, right-hander Brady Singer (4-4, 3.39 ERA) will open the series, while Nathan Eovaldi (3-3, 3.15) will start for the Rangers. Since his most recent victory on May 19 over the Oakland Athletics, Singer has made four starts. After giving up two home runs to Shohei Ohtani and one to Freddie Freeman in a 3-0 away loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, he has lost his last two starts. In his four career starts against the Rangers, Singer is 0-3 with a 6.05 ERA. In a May 3 start against Kansas City, he pitched well against them, giving up one run on four hits in six innings and striking out eight in the Royals’ 7-1 victory.
Eovaldi has a record of 4-2 with a 4.40 ERA in nine career appearances (seven starts) against Kansas City. In his last outing, he allowed four runs on four hits and four walks over three innings, striking out six in a 7-5 road loss to the Seattle Mariners on Saturday. Both teams come into the contest having recently ended losing streaks. Texas broke a five-game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the visiting New York Mets on Wednesday. Leody Taveras, who was in a severe slump with only 2 hits in his last 43 at-bats (.047), came in as a substitute and hit a two-run, go-ahead home run in the seventh inning to secure the win. “No getting around it, we did (need a win),” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “Leo, to come into a game like that and hit a home run, it’s good to see him come in and do something really good. I know he’s been fighting it a little bit.”
From May 3–5, the Rangers and Royals faced off in Kansas City; Texas emerged victorious in two of the three games.
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