Another lefty tonight

[Prosecutor]

KC is going with Jeff Francis, a 30-year-old lefty who's off to a pretty good start.

I don't know this guy because he spent the last seven years with Colorado, but he's 55-52 with a 4.75 ERA for his career. He's a journeyman but the ERA is inflated somewhat by pitching at altitude.

Francis put up four quality starts in a row this season before getting lit up by Texas in his last outing. Five starts is a very small sample size, but his ERA at home is 2.70 (3 starts) while his road ERA is 6.55 (2 starts). Advantage Tribe.

He has been dominating left-handed hitters, holding them to .194/.446. Righties have hit .326/.876, so it's a very dramatic split. He has not walked a lefty in 31 at-bats.
In fact, he has walked only four batters in 31 innings, so you have to hit your way on.

I'm wondering if Acta will try to get Kearns or Duncan into the lineup or just go with the same group that got nine runs last night. If it were me I'd probably give Santana the day off and put Marson at catcher and Duncan at DH in place of Pronk. I don't know how many days in a row Grady is allowed to play, but this might be a good time to move Brantley to center and put Kearns in. As hot as Grady is right now you hate to sit him down even against a tough lefty, so I expect Grady to be in there.

Grady hit a 412 foot HR off a lefty last night so it's not like he's helpless against them.

Still, I wouldn't mind seeing Acta stack the deck with right-handed hitters against a guy who's brutal on lefties but is getting hammered by right-handers. Marson is hitting better than Santana right now and Dunc kills lefties. As bad as Kearns is hitting you might as well leave Grady in there unless he's due for a day off.

For the Tribe, Tomlin held the Royals to one run in 7 1/3 innings last week. It will be interesting to see how they do against him the second time around now that they have a better idea of what he throws. Gordon and Butler are amazing right now and Francoeur is hot, but the bottom third of the Royals lineup is about as bad as I've seen this year. Tomlin has to keep runners off the bases in front of Gordon and Bulter and then take care of business on the back end.

[WiscTribeFan]

When Francis went 17-9 as a 26 year old, he was looked upon as being a potential franchise lefty for the Rocks. Injuries have derailed a potentially good career. He was a low-risk signing for the Royals in the off-season

[Commodore Perry]

Francis might have a pretty ERA against lefties, but he's never gone up against Jack Supermannahan.

[Lokais]

Looks like Santana is getting the night off tonight. Finally.

[dazindiansfanuk]

If they actually play tonight that is.

Forecast calls for severe thunder storms at some point during the evening.

[cozmeesah]

Grady just had a day off on Monday with the rest of the team. Manny said he'd use the off-days to his advantage to get him days off without missing a game. He was in the lineup on Friday before the rainout, which would have been him playing 3 days straight. So I'd say his limit is 3 days in a row right now.

Both Duncan and Kearns in lineup tonight. Duncan at 1B, Kearns in LF, Brantley and Santana both off.

Forecast for yesterday said the same thing as it does today. Chance of thunderstorms popping up because of the warm air, etc.

EDIT: But, with that being said, I just looked at the radar. If that giant blob down towards Kentucky moves this way they will not be playing at all. Cuz it will rain all night long.