MLB Game Preview - Baltimore at Kansas City

Sat Aug 31, 2019 7:15 PM EDT

Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost had a six-year major league career as a catcher before his managerial career, which is in its 16th season. So he's a pretty good judge of what makes pitchers successful.

"I think you're talking about pitching with conviction more than anything else," Yost said. "I think it's enormously important being able to trust your stuff and pitch with conviction. The greatest thing these guys can figure out right now is, 'What's my strength?' A lot of these guys don't have a strength because they're not consistent with their pitches."

It's the time of year when Yost is looking for tips he can give to help his pitchers in future years. He sends right-hander Jorge Lopez (2-7, 6.56 ERA) to the mound Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles in the second game of a three-game series. The Orioles pounded the host Royals 14-2 in the opener Friday night.

Lopez has been struggling this season, despite having good enough abilities to take a perfect game into the ninth inning in a start last September.

His most recent start came Aug. 19 in Baltimore, when he earned his first victory as a starter since his near-perfect game. He allowed one run on two hits over five innings. That outing gives him confidence heading into Saturday's start.

"The mental side is something I've been working on," Lopez said Friday. "I've had bad numbers as a starter, but I'm keeping the faith in what I know to do on the mound. I'm just keeping focused on executing pitches."

Lopez's only other appearance against Baltimore was last Sept. 2, picking up the win in a 9-1 rout as he struck out eight over seven innings. He's 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA all-time against Baltimore.

The Orioles will send Dylan Bundy (6-13, 4.98 ERA) to the mound Saturday.

Bundy has electric stuff, when he can control it. He has struck out 131 in 132 innings this season, but he has also walked 45. Two starts ago, against Kansas City, he allowed one run on five hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out seven.

But on May 8, 2018, in one of his two starts against the Royals last season, he faced seven batters and allowed seven runs on four home runs, becoming the first pitcher in MLB history to allow four home runs without recording an out.

He's 1-1 with a 4.55 ERA all-time against Kansas City.

"You can get by with pitching with conviction and location better than you can with stuff," Yost said.

Where players get their conviction can vary. It may have come Friday for Orioles' shortstop Richie Martin when he visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. Martin's maternal grandfather, Walter Thomas, was a right-handed pitcher with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1944-45. He also played for teams in Chicago and Birmingham.

"My dad, growing up, always wanted to make me stay educated on how far we've come in terms of baseball as African-Americans," Martin said. "So to see that firsthand and be able to carry that legacy on is pretty important to me.

"I think it's our responsibility, not just African-Americans, but all of baseball, to learn where we've come from. It's not all negative, but it's positive, too, and I think it's important for us to never lose that history so we don't make the same mistakes over. Playing together as a baseball community and never let that separation happen again."

With pride, Martin told of seeing a team photo of the 1945 Monarchs with his grandfather in the front row along with Jackie Robinson, who two years later cracked the major leagues' color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

After the tour, museum president Bob Kendrick presented Martin a replica Monarchs jersey like his grandfather wore in Kansas City.

"That was really special," Martin said.

Martin drove in two runs on a sacrifice fly and a fielder's choice Friday.

--Field Level Media