St. Louis Cardinals (58-56, third in the NL Central) vs. Kansas City Royals (49-64, fifth in the AL Central)
Kansas City, Missouri; Friday, 8:10 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Jack Flaherty (8-1, 0.00 ERA) Royals: Mike Minor (8-10, 5.39 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 128 strikeouts)
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Royals +120, Cardinals -139; over/under is 8 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: Kansas City and St. Louis will play on Friday.
The Royals are 29-27 in home games in 2020. The Kansas City pitching staff averages 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings, Mike Minor leads them with a mark of 8.8.
The Cardinals are 26-31 on the road. St. Louis has a collective on-base percentage of .304, led by Paul Goldschmidt with a mark of .343.
The Royals won the last meeting 6-5. Scott Barlow earned his fourth victory and Michael A. Taylor went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Kansas City. Alex Reyes took his fifth loss for St. Louis.
TOP PERFORMERS: Salvador Perez leads the Royals with 47 extra-base hits and is batting .276.
Nolan Arenado leads the Cardinals with 53 extra-base hits and is batting .261.
LAST 10 GAMES: Royals: 4-6, .223 batting average, 4.30 ERA, outscored by six runs
Cardinals: 6-4, .269 batting average, 3.90 ERA, outscored opponents by four runs
INJURIES: Royals: Kyle Zimmer: (neck/trap), Jesse Hahn: (shoulder), Ronald Bolanos: (flexor), Adalberto Mondesi: (oblique).
Cardinals: Miles Mikolas: (forearm), Carlos Martinez: (thumb), Wade LeBlanc: (elbow), Kwang Hyun Kim: (elbow), Dakota Hudson: (elbow), Jordan Hicks: (elbow), Jack Flaherty: (oblique), Dylan Carlson: (wrist), Max Moroff: (shoulder).
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.