Dodgers vs. Royals Game I chat

The Dodgers start a seven-game road trip in Kansas City on Friday evening. The Boys in Blue are red hot and bring a 10-game winning streak to Kauffman Stadium.

Tony Gonsolin (13-1, 2.30 ERA, 0.894 WHIP) makes his first career start against the Royals. Gonsolin was superb over the first half of the season for the Dodgers, but he slipped up a bit in the second half. He’s allowed 14 hits and five walks (1.188 WHIP) in his last 16 innings pitched.

Young southpaw Daniel Lynch (4-7, 4.79 ERA, 1.524 WHIP) has had reoccuring blister problems on his pitching hand. He’s landed on the injured list twice this season due to blisters and cuts on his hands which caused issues with his command and spin on some pitches.

Lynch allowed six hits and struck out seven without a walk in 5 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched to get the win over the White Sox in his first start since returning from the injured list. In his last start, against the Red Sox, the 25-year old left-hander allowed four runs on seven hits with six strikeouts and no walks over six frames, but he wasn’t involved in the decision. He’s never faced the Dodgers in his young career.

The Dodgers are a juggernaut of a team (+236 run differential). Lynch and the Royals will have their work cut out for them when they clash with the first-place Dodgers this weekend at home. The Royals are mired in fourth place in the American League Central division and 13 games behind the Cleveland Guardians.

Mookie Betts is OPSing 1.026 and Cody Bellinger 1.251 in the last five games. Max Muncy finally started to look like the Max of old this past week. He has a 1.533 OPS and five extra-base hits including three home runs in the last four games he started.

Game info

• Teams: Dodgers (77-33) vs. Royals (47-66)
• Location: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO
• First pitch: 5:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA