Kansas City Royals (54-102, fifth in AL Central) vs. Cincinnati Reds (66-91, fifth in NL Central)

Cincinnati; Tuesday, 6:40 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Royals: Eric Skoglund (1-5, 5.60 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 45 strikeouts) Reds: Matt Harvey (7-9, 4.92 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 125 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Whit Merrifield is on a roll for Kansas City. He’s hit safely in 14 straight games and is batting .322 in that period. The Reds have dropped their last three games. Cincinnati is hitting a collective .255 this season, led by Scooter Gennett’s mark of .315. The Royals have gone 3-8 in Skoglund’s starts this year. Kansas City hitters have posted a team on-base percentage of .306 this season, led by Merrifield’s mark of .368. Jose Peraza helped the Reds earn a 7-0 win when these two teams last met on June 13. He went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

TOP PERFORMERS: Salvador Perez is batting .233 with a .273 on-base percentage and .442 slugging percentage in 124 games this season for the Royals. Adalberto Mondesi has five home runs and seven RBIs while slugging .689 over his past 10 games for Kansas City. Eugenio Suarez has 32 home runs and 101 RBIs on the year for the Reds. Jose Peraza has 10 hits and is batting .244 over his past 10 games for Cincinnati.

LAST 10 GAMES: Royals: 4-6, .279 batting average, 4.40 ERA, outscored opponents by three runs. Reds: 3-7, .184 batting average, 3.09 ERA, outscored by 23 runs.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.