The Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians are playing live on the MLB baseball schedule on Thursday afternoon and the early 12:05 pm ET start time from Progressive Field has two AL Central teams looking to get their footing in the division and this could be one of the toughest in baseball this season and they are looking to get good games from Bruce Chen and Corey Kluber and the game will be streaming online from MLB.com.
The division is shaping up very well in the early goings and the Indians , despite being 10-11 on the season, are in last place and they are looking up at the Royals, the improved White Sox and Twins as well as the winners from last season in the Tigers. The Central is shaping up to be very tough and the Royals are coming back after their first winning season in a decade and they are looking to continue that into 2014 and while it has been an up and down start, they come in after a win against Kansas City and now Cleveland is looking to get back even on their record.
The Indians come into the game ranked 14th in runs and they are 17th in batting average after being much lower the first week of the season. The team is ranked seventh in on base percentage and 20th in slugging and they are looking to bounce back from a slow start. The team hits the road on Friday for their interleague series against the Giants and that will be out in San Francisco and the team is facing off against Tim Hudson in the first game of that series.
The pitching has been struggling to start the season, with the rotation putting up one of the worst ERAs at just under 5.00, while the bullpen has been much better with a sub 3.00 ERA collectively. The team is ranked 23rd overall in ERA and the same in quality starts and BAA, while the WHIP is ranked 27th and that has to improve as well. Michael Bourn coming back has been big for the team and he drove in two runs to get the win against the Royals and Justin Masterson has been coming on as the season has continued and the Indians are looking to continue that on Thursday afternoon.
James Shields has been the ace for the Royals since his trade from the Rays and the team comes in ranked 28th in runs, but they have been hitting very well and they are ninth overall in batting average in the early goings. The team is 17th in on base and 23rd in slugging and they are looking to bounce back after losing to the Indians. The team starts a series against the Orioles on the road on Friday and they will matchup against Ubaldo Jimenez. The team is 10-10 in the division and they are in second, which shows how close the race is right now, as the Indians are one game back and are in last place.
Check here for the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians live coverage from MLB.
