Indians at Royals
Carlos Santana is seeing the ball well as the Cleveland Indians eye a three-game sweep of the host Kansas City Royals on Thursday afternoon. Santana extended his on-base streak to a career-high 26 games - the longest active run in the majors - and continued his home-run assault on Kansas City in Wednesday's 4-0 victory that was Cleveland's third straight and 18th in 26 contests.
Santana, who is 12-for-35 with three home runs, six RBIs and seven runs during his nine-game hitting streak, belted his 29th shot against the Royals - the most among active players against the club. Kansas City owns the second-worst record in baseball at 29-58 after losing its third straight and sixth in seven games. Whit Merrifield continues to be a bright spot for the Royals after going 2-for-4 on Wednesday, raising his average to .310 with his fourth consecutive multi-hit performance. Cleveland rookie Zach Plesac on Thursday tries to bounce back from the worst start of his career as he opposes Homer Bailey, who dominated the Indians in April.
TV: 1:15 p.m. ET, MLB Network; SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland), FS Kansas City
PITCHING MATCHUP: Indians RH Zach Plesac (3-3, 3.61 ERA) vs. Royals RH Homer Bailey (7-6, 4.87)
Plesac allowed seven runs, seven hits (two homers) and three walks in 3 2/3 innings of a 13-0 loss at Baltimore on Saturday. The 24-year-old native of Indiana recorded four quality starts in his first six career turns, yielding one run in four of those outings. Plesac, the nephew of former major-league left-hander Dan Plesac, owns a 1.11 WHIP and has made four pickoffs while limiting opponents to a .220 batting average.
Bailey was 3-0 with a 0.47 ERA in his previous three starts before permitting five runs, five hits (two homers) and four walks in five innings of a 7-5 loss at Toronto on Saturday. The 33-year-old Texan already has equaled his win total from the last two seasons while heading toward his finest campaign since 2014, when he won nine of his 23 starts. Santana is 2-for-16 with seven strikeouts and Kevin Plawecki 3-for-9 with two home runs against Bailey, who is 4-4 with a 5.03 ERA in 10 career starts against the Indians after yielding two hits in seven innings of a 2-0 victory on April 13.
WALK-OFFS
1. Kansas City leads baseball with 80 stolen bases - 10 more than second-place Texas - and has been caught a major league-most 25 times.
2. Cleveland DH Jake Bauers has gone 8-for-10 in his last three games, raising his average 22 points to .242.
3. Santana has hit 193 home runs with the Indians, moving past Al Rosen for ninth in club annals.