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PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 14: Michael Wacha #52 of the Kansas City Royals is introduced prior to the 96th MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Well, let’s forget that yesterday ever happened. The Royals now continue their NL West tour of duty. Today, one of the other California teams, the San Francisco Giants, comes to Kansas City for a three-game series. At 42-57, the Giants are not much better than the 40-60 Royals.
The Royals have a slightly better group of position players – the Royals sit at 16th in batter fWAR, while the Giants are at 21st. But as you might expect, the Giants make up that difference (and then some) with their superior pitching. That’s not to say their pitching is *good*, but it’s certainly better than the dead-last-in-fWAR staff of the Royals. The two teams are actually pretty close in starter fWAR; the Royals bullpen is just so atrocious. Again, the Giants bullpen is also bad! The Royals are just in their own league of bad.
Because they are required to have a starting pitcher, the Royals will put Michael Wacha on the mound to pitch. He’s the innings leader for the Royals and sports a 3.77 ERA / 4.00 FIP. You know, Michael Wacha things. Just like…the same stuff he’s been doing for years. I feel like I’ve had Wacha on Mondays quite a bit this season, and there’s not much to say about him. He was an All-Star.
The Giants are countering with Trevor McDonald, a 25-year-old right-hander, who by K%/BB% is very nearly a clone of Wacha. The main difference is that he’s a heavy ground-ball pitcher (56.2%!) – if I set the leaderboard threshold down to 60 innings pitched minimum, McDonald ranks 3rd among all pitchers in ground-ball rate. He has an inflated ERA due to a low strand rate. I’m not sure how real this is, given the sample size, but he seems to fall apart if anyone gets on base. His K%/BB% get significantly worse. He’s just as good as Wacha, if not better, with the bases empty.
The game starts at 6:40pm US Central. You can watch on Royals.TV and listen on 96.5 The Fan/The Royals Radio Network.
Lineups:
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