Royals vs Guardians, September 25 live game discussion
· Yahoo Sports
Well, folks. It’s been a…well I was going to say it’s been a good season. But it hasn’t. So I’ll say, “It’s been a season.”
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This is my last game preview for the 2026 Royals calendar. I, along with the rest of the usual suspects, will be posting discussion threads for the playoffs, but even if I think you should pick a team to root for, there just isn’t the same emphasis on previewing those games.
Anyway, let’s do this one more time for this year.
Michael Wacha will take the mound for the Royals. He needs to pitch 5.2 innings to reach 200 for the season for the first time in his career. The Royals probably need him to pitch eight or nine if they’re going to win the game, based on how atrocious the bullpen has rebounded to be over the past week or so. Lest you doubt me, the team had a 4.03 bullpen ERA until the Pirates series; that’s not good, but it’s not horrendous. Since then, they have a 6.10 ERA, second-worst in baseball, only to the Angels.
The Guardians will send out Tanner Bibee. I had a sense that I had written about him in a game preview earlier this year. I was right! He faced Wacha back on August 28th, and I had this to say about him then:
The other good news, at least relative to the remainder of the weekend, is that the Guardians will counter with Tanner Bibee. Two years ago, Bibee was the Guardians’ ace. No longer. Now he’s on something of a Michael Wacha trajectory where he pitches better than you think, but not as well as anyone hoped after those first couple of seasons. And, importantly, he’s right-handed. That sets him apart from the other two starters the Royals will face this weekend.
I also noted that his most-used pitch is the cutter and that the Royals should look out for it. That’s still true. They apparently didn’t heed my advice last time, as Bibee’s pitching wasn’t the problem in that game; he allowed only one run in six innings. It’s just that Wacha pitched the best game of his Royals’ career: 8 shutout innings with no walks, 4 hits (all singles), and 10 strikeouts. It would be swell if Wacha replicated that effort again tonight.
Lineups
Hey look, the Royals like the word penultimate, too!
Nick Loftin went on the paternity list earlier today, ending his season. So, with Maikel Garcia getting the day off, Josh Rojas is back in there one more time. Kyle Isbel gets the day off in favor of shifting John Rave to center and putting Isaac Collins in left field. Hopefully they’ll play better defense than they did last night.