Kansas City Royals (52-97, fifth in AL Central) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (74-74, fourth in NL Central)

Pittsburgh; Monday, 7:05 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Royals: Brad Keller (8-6, 3.04 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 87 strikeouts) Pirates: Joe Musgrove (6-9, 3.87 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 96 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Pittsburgh and Kansas City match up to kick off the three-game series. The Pirates are 7-11 in games started by Musgrove. Pittsburgh has a collective .253 batting average on the season, led by Corey Dickerson’s .293 mark. The Royals have a 32-36 record against the NL Central. Kansas City holds a team on-base percentage of .307 for the year, Whit Merrifield paces the lineup with a .366 OBP.

TOP PERFORMERS: Salvador Perez is batting .234 for the Royals this season, and his .447 slugging percentage is 34th in the American League. Adalberto Mondesi has three home runs and nine RBIs while slugging .636 over his past 10 games for Kansas City. Starling Marte leads the Pirates with 140 hits on the season. He’s batting .272 on the year. Josh Bell has 10 hits and is batting .313 over his past 10 games for Pittsburgh.

LAST 10 GAMES: Royals: 6-4, .272 batting average, 3.98 ERA, outscored opponents by nine runs. Pirates: 7-3, .265 batting average, 4.03 ERA, outscored opponents by five runs.

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