By Fred Liggett
FredL@lstribune.net

On Tuesday, April 24th the KC Royals returned home to begin a seven-game home stand against the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago White Sox. The Royals, just 20 games into the 2018 season, began inter-league play with a two game series against the Brewers. Thanks to three key players in Royals history the team began inter-league play with a splash. Brewers Lorenzo Cain hit a home run as part of a four for four evening, Salvador Perez hit a home run in his first game of the season and Alex Gordon hit a stand up double in his return to the team’s lineup on Tuesday. Royals lost the game 5 to 2.

On Thursday night the Royals and White Sox renewed a Central Division rivalry with a five-game series thanks to a doubleheader on Saturday. A 1:15 p.m. game had been scheduled to make up for the postponed Sunday April 1 game. Then the originally scheduled 6:15 p.m. Saturday night contest has been pushed back an hour to 7:15 p.m. to create a day-night doubleheader.
With four games scheduled to be played over the three-day weekend the KC Royals are expected to adjust their pitching lineup. Before the home stand the team placed Justin Grimm on the 10-day disabled list. They added lefty Eric Stout to replace him. Furthering the need for additional pitching the Royals may have lost starter Ian Kennedy for a short time after he injured his right foot in Tuesday night’s game against Milwaukee. Kennedy suffered a right foot contusion after getting hit by a ball on the top of his foot. The team announced Kennedy is day-to-day at this time.

No matter who is pitching on the mound the Royals hope over the seven-game home stand they can improve on their 5-15 overall record. Having everyday starters in catcher Salvador Perez and left fielder Alex Gordon back on the field is a good start.