***Official KC Royals vs Cleveland Indians--April 27, 2015***

[lewdog]

Spoiler!

For all of the well-documented success the Kansas City Royals had a season ago, they struggled with Corey Kluber as much or more than anyone.

The reigning AL Cy Young winner will try to kick his 2015 campaign into similar gear and jump-start a struggling rotation Monday night when the Cleveland Indians welcome the Royals for a three-game series.

Kluber (0-2, 3.90 ERA) went 2-1 with a 1.15 ERA in four 2014 starts against the Royals and went at least 8 1/3 innings in three.

This season, Kluber was strong for his first three starts before allowing six runs and 13 hits in six-plus innings of Wednesday's 6-0 road loss to the Chicago White Sox. The Indians have lost in all four of his starts while providing him with a 1.63 run-support average.

"It's a hard way to pitch when we're throwing up zeroes as an offense," manager Terry Francona told MLB's official website. "I think he probably feels like he has to be perfect, and that's a hard way to pitch."

Kansas City's main struggles against the right-hander have come from Salvador Perez (2 for 16), Lorenzo Cain (2 for 15) and Alcides Escobar (5 for 25 with 10 strikeouts). Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordon are both 4 for 25 with a combined 16 strikeouts but have each homered twice against Kluber. Mike Moustakas is 8 for 21 with a home run and four doubles.

Run support hasn't been a problem for Jason Vargas, but the Kansas City left-hander hasn't been able to quiet opposing lineups. Vargas (1-1, 6.75) allowed five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings of Tuesday's 6-5 home win over Minnesota and didn't earn the decision. He's received a 5.52 runs of support while allowing a .348 opponent batting average in three starts.

Vargas was lucky enough to catch Kluber in the one meeting last year in which the Royals managed more than a run, but he was 1-1 with a 4.94 ERA in four starts against the Indians.

The Royals (12-6) are in danger of dropping three straight for the first time since the end of August after losing two of three to the White Sox. Sunday's 5-3 defeat came after taking a 3-0 lead into the sixth inning. It followed the completion of Friday's suspended game, in which the Royals fell 3-2.

Kansas City was hitting a major league-best .310 through 14 games but has fallen off with a .243 mark with eight runs in its last four. That lineup could at some point be without Cain, one of four Royals suspended after Thursday's brawl with Chicago, but the outfielder is appealing.

"You have to pay the consequences. We'll see what happens," Cain said. "I appealed it, but we'll see what happens."

The Indians (6-11) haven't won a series since opening the season by taking two of three in Houston. They've gone 4-10 since with a 5.43 ERA from the starting rotation after Sunday's 8-6 loss in Detroit. At home, they're 1-4 with an 8.66 mark from their starters.

The series loss to the Tigers came despite scoring 20 runs in three games, but the positive is some of the key parts of the lineup are coming around. Michael Brantley was 8 for 13 and hit .405 against Kansas City a season ago. Carlos Santana was 4 for 9 with four walks and is batting .361 with seven home runs and 16 RBIs in his last 16 games against the Royals.

The Indians have won 12 of the last 18 meetings in Cleveland.

KC Royals 12-6
Cleveland Indians 6-11

KC: Vargas (1-1 , 6.75 ERA) CLE: Kluber (0-2 , 3.90 ERA)

KC LEADERS:
BA: Cain .388
HR: Perez 3
RBI: Perez 12

Indians LEADERS
BA: Santana .250
HR: Santana 3
RBI: Santana 11

[C3HIEF3S]

Originally Posted by Mother****erJones

How many fans were there? I know why fans don't come to CWS games. We haven't been good for years. But the Indians have had some good teams and have less fans go to games than us.

Something interesting that I was looking at yesterday actually.
Their attendance just fell off of a cliff after their great years in the late 90's. In 2001 they averaged 39,600 fans/game according to espn. They won 91 games that season, the last good season of that era for them (I'm going strictly by numbers here as I cannot recall this, maybe some of the older guys can help me out on this).

Next season (2002) they won 74 games and averaged 32,000/game, season after that they won 68 games and averaged 22,700 fans/game. The rest is history, nothing up from there from what I can see no matter how good the team is. Aside from one spike from 22k-27k in 2007-08, attendance has even been below an average of 20k/game in four seasons in the last decade.

It's like their fans just couldn't take the bad years after the good ones and all collectively said **** it.
I don't get it.

[lewdog]

Someone else start game thread. I won't be home for start and will watch a few hours later.

[Mother****erJones]

Originally Posted by C3HIEF3S

Something interesting that I was looking at yesterday actually.
Their attendance just fell off of a cliff after their great years in the late 90's. In 2001 they averaged 39,600 fans/game according to espn. They won 91 games that season, the last good season of that era for them (I'm going strictly by numbers here as I cannot recall this, maybe some of the older guys can help me out on this).

Next season (2002) they won 74 games and averaged 32,000/game, season after that they won 68 games and averaged 22,700 fans/game. The rest is history, nothing up from there from what I can see no matter how good the team is. Aside from one spike from 22k-27k in 2007-08, attendance has even been below an average of 20k/game in four seasons in the last decade.

It's like their fans just couldn't take the bad years after the good ones and all collectively said **** it.
I don't get it.

I've heard there's public transportation issues but it all sounds like excuses and bs.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by C3HIEF3S

Something interesting that I was looking at yesterday actually.
Their attendance just fell off of a cliff after their great years in the late 90's. In 2001 they averaged 39,600 fans/game according to espn. They won 91 games that season, the last good season of that era for them (I'm going strictly by numbers here as I cannot recall this, maybe some of the older guys can help me out on this).

Next season (2002) they won 74 games and averaged 32,000/game, season after that they won 68 games and averaged 22,700 fans/game. The rest is history, nothing up from there from what I can see no matter how good the team is. Aside from one spike from 22k-27k in 2007-08, attendance has even been below an average of 20k/game in four seasons in the last decade.

It's like their fans just couldn't take the bad years after the good ones and all collectively said **** it.
I don't get it.

They lost a lot of front office personnel and also lost all the great, homegrown players that made the team so good.

Losing Jim Thome to the Phillies seemed to be a final blow for many of the fans, who just tuned out because they thought ownership was cheap.

[beer bacon]

That's some horrible ****ing game management. What the ****.