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Tonight’s game looks like the key to the series. Marsh was brilliant against the O’s in Baltimore, but has been mediocre in his two subsequent appearances. Kremer was so-so against the Royals, then had one excellent start followed by a complete stinker. So what Kremer do we get tonight?
KC has already played the pitiful White Sox 7 times, going 6-1. They also put a 3-0 spanking on the Astros, who’ve been surprisingly bad. They’ve lost series to the Twins, O’s and Mets but took a game in each.
I was and still am a Means defender. Velocity is not John's game. In 2019 his average 4 seamer was 91.7 mph. But his changeup was 80.9 mph and his curve was 77 mph according to Statcast. John went 12-11 with a 3.60 ERA that year on a bad team. It's the different in the speeds of the pitches that makes John effective.
According to the information I found about a Texas pitcher in 2022 coming off TJ surgery the O's can and I think probably will apply to MLB for another month of rehab in 10 day increments. John's comeback story is far from over IMO.
We stole two of the three games against KC when they came to Baltimore two weeks ago, and everybody knows it. My guess is they'll have a chip on their shoulder about that. They out-hit us and out-homered us in our own park, and an unlucky bounce here or there and we could have been swept. I know the Brewers blew us out two of three, but IMO the Royals are the best team we've face so far. I'm expecting to lose a couple in KC but wouldn't be surprised if we lost all three.