Kansas City Royals at Angels preview

The Royals will be back on the West Coast this weekend. For me, that means I’ll have to take a three hour nap just to stay awake. For the Royals, that means….. Well, not really anything. It’s just another West Coast trip, probably filled with disappointments and crushed dreams. We have Duffy, and Shields pitching for us this series, so ALL hope is not lost.

The Royals will look to lefty, Danny Duffy to start the series off. Duffy completely rocked his last performance, almost throwing a perfect game. In fact, Duffy’s last three starts have been rock solid. Over the last three, Duffy is 1-2 (thanks to our wonderful, lack-luster offense.) With a 1.06 ERA. Though Duffy has never started against the Angels, I have high expectations for Young Duff.

Next on the bump for KC: “Big Game” James Shields. I have…. Faith in Shields, I think. Although I’m not his biggest fan, we can all agree that he is the ace of our staff. In his career, Shields is 6-3 with a 3.12 ERA against the Angels. Those aren’t terrible numbers, but in Anaheim, Shields is 2-2 with a 5.45 ERA. Yikes. I’m a little iffy on giving Shields the ball, but I guess we’ll see.

For the final game in the Series, Jason Vargas gets the nod. That scares me. Not even a little, it scares me a lot. Vargy didn’t pitch good his last time out. How in the world do you blow a 5-0 lead? That takes talent. You’ve got to be doing some serious Royaling to do that, and indeed he was. Vargas has a relatively good track record in Anaheim. He’s 9-3 with a 2.93 ERA. Giving the ball to Vargas is scary. I have not an ounce of faith left in him.

Hopefully the Royals offense will not show up. I’d like to score some runs this series. If Yost knows what’s good for him, he will start Francisco Pena over Brett Hayes if Salvador Perez is still out. If 2/9 of our offense consists of Hayes/Pedro Ciriaco, I think I might stroke out.

I think the Royals will take the Series 2-1 against the Angels. I think the Royals offense will show up, but so will our pitchers, Duffy and Shields. Should we just pray not to get swept, or should we look for a series win?