Kansas City righty Jeremy Guthrie can match a Royals record on Sunday with a 16th straight start without a loss in the first game of a day/night doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians at Kauffman Stadium.
The doubledip was made necessary when Friday's game was postponed.
Guthrie, meanwhile, hasn't lost since Aug. 3 and is 7-0 with a 2.60 ERA over his last 15 starts. Should he emerge without a loss on Sunday he would match Paul Splittorff's team record set from Aug. 13, 1977-Aug. 22, 1978.
This year, he is 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA
The 34-year-old righty has not received decisions in either of his last two starts and against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday surrendered four runs, eight hits and walked four in six innings of a 5-4 win.
"Guthrie wasn't his sharpest but he did a great job of keeping us in the game," Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Guthrie, who spent the first three seasons of his career in Cleveland, is 2-2 lifetime versus the Indians with a 6.84 ERA in six games (4 starts).
Cleveland counters with Justin Masterson in game one, as he eyes a little bit of his history himself. Masterson is trying to become the first Indians pitcher to earn five wins in April for a second time.
"He's good, and he's backing it up," Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. "That's the biggest thing in our game, is being consistent and he's backing it up at a pretty high rate."
Masterson, who is 4-5 lifetime versus the Royals, beat the Chicago White Sox on Monday, holding them to two runs and four hits in seven innings, as he improved to 4-1 to go along with a 1.85 ERA.
In the nightcap for Cleveland Corey Kluber will become the eighth hurler to start a game for the Tribe this season. He's 1-0 this year in two relief appearances and was 2-5 a year ago in 12 starts.
Kansas City will recall Will Smith to start the second game and be the club's 26th player. Smith beat the Indians last season and is 2-1 in three starts against them, despite a 5.63 ERA.
"I could use Bruce (Chen) or (Luke Hochevar) but they're not built up for that right now," Yost said. "So we'll take advantage of the 26th man."
Kansas City opened the four-game set in winning fashion on Saturday, as Eric Hosmer walked with the bases loaded in the seventh to force in the eventual game-winning run in a 3-2 triumph.
Salvador Perez hit a two-run homer for the Royals, who started a 10-game homestand on Saturday.
Kansas City starter Ervin Santana (3-1) tossed seven scoreless innings to pick up the win. The right-hander gave up six hits while striking out five.
Scott Kazmir (0-1) allowed two runs on five hits over five innings for the Indians, who have lost two straight since a three-game winning streak. He had four strikeouts to surpass 1,000 for his career.
"I'd been sitting on that for a long time, it feels like, so it's not as special as if there would have been a time that I kept going through and not had this little hiccup," Kazmir said.
This will be the first day/night doubleheader at Kauffman since the stadium opened its doors in 1973.
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