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23	November 2018

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KANSAS CITY Youth Thomas Rawls Jersey , Mo. � The Cincinnati Reds have the worst record in the National League at 24-43, but they still have a better record than the Kansas City Royals.

The Reds beat the Royals 5-1 in 10 innings Tuesday. The Royals have dropped eight of their past nine and are 22-45 overall. Only the Baltimore Orioles (19-47) have a worst record.

The Royals are 23 games below .500 for the first time since Sept. 13, 2011, when they were 63-86.

The Reds will go for a sweep of the two-game mini-series in Kansas City on Wednesday night. The Reds� victory Tuesday was their first over the Royals since June 12, 2010.

Right-hander Tyler Mahle of the Reds and Jason Hammel of the Royals are scheduled starting pitchers for the series finale.

Mahle (4-6, 4.33 ERA) is 1-0 in two June starts, allowing 11 hits and two earned runs in 10 innings, while striking out 11 and walking four.

This will be Mahle�s first time facing the Royals, but not his first time on the Kaufman Stadium mound. He threw a mound session before the 2013 draft when the Reds chose him in the seventh round.

�They had a high school workout,� Mahle said. �Pitchers just threw a bullpen off the game mound; that was it. All the scouts were here.�

He said never pitching against the Royals does not change his preparation.

�It�s the same between every start,� Mahle said. �I prepare to go out there and hit my spots and compete. It�s a new team Youth Trenton Cannon Jersey , and I�ve never seen them play before, so I�m going to do my homework and kind of make a game plan out of it.�

He said he pitches not to the Royals� weaknesses, but his strengths.

�You always play to your own strength,� he said. �We�re going to find out what their weaknesses are and kind of find something there in the middle. I throw a lot of fastballs, but if there�s a guy who likes a lot of fastballs, it kind of collides there.

�But, at the same time, if you hit spots, good things are going to happen. Obviously if you throw it down the middle, he�s going to hit it, but if you hit a corner Youth P.J. Hall Jersey , or something like that, always if you make your pitch, good things are going to happen.�

Good things happened to the Reds in the Tuesday victory. They trailed 1-0 entering the ninth, but Tucker Barnhart led off the inning with a blast off Kelvin Herrera that landed in the Royals� bullpen.

�That is against one of the best closers in the game, so that was huge,� Reds manager Jim Riggleman said. �Both pitchers are pitching so good it�s probably going to be a home-run type game. Nobody was putting a rally together. They got one and we got one, and our bullpen really did a great job.�

Hammel (2-6, 5.12 ERA) is 2-1 with a 2.59 ERA in his last four starts after a 13-start winless streak in which he went 0-8 with a 7.28 ERA. He has issued two or fewer walks in 10 of his 13 starts this season.

Hammel is 0-3 with a 4.70 ERA in five home starts this year and is winless in his last seven Kauffman Stadium starts dating to Aug. 20.

He is 4-1 with a 3.42 ERA in 12 career outings (11 starts) against the Reds. He has won his last four starts against Cincinnati with a 0.75 ERA, but has not faced the Reds since 2016.

NEW YORK � Greg Bird was rehabbing a right ankle injury for the first six meetings between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

He carried a .191 average and several frustrating at-bats into Friday�s series opener. Then he slugged two homers and possibly gave the Yankees something to think about with the first baseman�s playing time against left-handers Chris Sale and David Price and the final two games.

While Bird could get the game off, his New York temmates will get a crack at solving Sale on Saturday night in the second game of three-game series against Boston at Yankee Stadium.

Bird posted his second career multi-homer game and the Yankees opened the series by hitting four homers in an 8-1 rout on Friday. After homering twice, Bird is batting 204 (19-for-93) in 29 games since coming off the disabled list.

�Perhaps Youth Daryl Worley Jersey , I think about that a little bit,� Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. �It was really good to see Birdie impact the ball. I was happy for him and that�s something that can kind of jump-start him a little bit because what we believe he brings is that left-handed on-base, power guy in this ballpark.�

If Bird is in the lineup, he will be getting his first career at-bats against Sale. If Bird is not in the lineup, it could be Brandon Drury or Neil Walker at first base.

Regardless if Bird plays, the Yankees were glad to see him homer to left-center field and right-center field against Eduardo Rodriguez in the fifth and Justin Haley in the eighth.

�It�s only a matter of time,� Yankees right-fielder Aaron Judge said of Bird. �It takes a lot of time to kind of get in that groove.�

Sale is 7-4 with a 2.56 ERA this season but rolling of late.

He is 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA in his last three starts and in the last four starts has totaled 43 strikeouts in 28 innings while allowing a paltry .155 average.

Sale last pitched Sunday when he allowed four hits and struck out 13 in a 5-0 win over the Seattle Mariners. Sale posted his second straight double-digit strikeout game, sixth this season and ended the outing by fanning Mike Zunino with a 100.5 mph fastball � the fastest pitch of his career.

This season as the Red Sox attempt to keep Sale fresh for the final months of the year, his velocity is steadily increasing. His average fastball was 92.5 in April, 95.6 in May and 97.0 this month.

�I think it�s just getting back into a little bit better rhythm,� Sale said of his increase in velocity. �I�ve been saying the same thing over the last three or four starts � it�s feeling good and getting into that tempo and getting back into a little bit better rhythm than I had been starting the year. I put a lot of work into it. I�m glad where we�re at.�

If Sale posts double-digit strikeouts Saturday Youth Terrell Edmunds Jersey , it will mark the fourth time he has at least 10 strikeouts in three straight games.

�A lot of people get caught up on strikeouts,� Sale said. �They�re nice, but at the end of the day your job is to pitch as deep into that game as you can and keep as few runs off the board (as possible).�

Sale enters the game with 153 strikeouts, two ahead of Houston�s Gerrit Cole for the league lead. He also is hoping to see his teammates produce a better offensive showing after losing for the second time in eight games.

The left-hander faced the Yankees on April 10 in a 14-1 win at Fenway Park. He is 5-4 with a 1.73 ERA in 16 appearances (13 starts) against the Yankees.

While Mookie Betts was 2-for-4 and had his 25th multi-hit game, J.D. Martinez was 0-for-4 and is now hitless in his last nine at-bats.

New York will counter with Sonny Gray, who is 5-5 with a 4.93 ERA.

Gray is 2-1 with a 3.23 ERA in his last five starts since lasting 3 2/3 innings in an 11-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on May 26. His last outing was last Saturday in Tampa Bay when he allowed four runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings of a 4-0 loss.

Gray faced the Red Sox on April 12 in Boston when he allowed six runs and seven hits in a season-low three innings of a 6-3 loss. Since joining the Yankees, he is 0-3 with a 7.20 ERA in three starts against the Red Sox. For his career, Gray is 1-5 with a 5.97 ERA in seven games against Boston.