Kansas City Royals (66-83, fifth in the AL Central) vs. Boston Red Sox (81-68, third in the AL East)

Boston; Sunday, 3:05 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Noah Cameron (9-8, 3.93 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 145 strikeouts); Red Sox: Payton Tolle (9-6, 3.15 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 159 strikeouts)

LINE: Red Sox -190, Royals +153; over/under is 7 1/2 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals play on Sunday with the winner claiming the three-game series.

Boston is 37-37 at home and 81-68 overall. Red Sox hitters are batting a collective .248, the ninth-best team batting average in MLB play.

Kansas City has a 66-83 record overall and a 27-47 record on the road. The Royals are 29-17 in games when they did not allow a home run.

Sunday’s game is the sixth meeting between these teams this season. The Red Sox have a 4-1 advantage in the season series.

TOP PERFORMERS:

Carter Jensen has 31 doubles, two triples, 24 home runs and 71 RBIs for the Royals. Salvador Perez is 14 for 39 with two doubles and two home runs over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Red Sox: 6-4, .226 batting average, 3.10 ERA, outscored opponents by three runs

Royals: 4-6, .231 batting average, 3.82 ERA, outscored by five runs

INJURIES: Red Sox: Johan Oviedo: 60-Day IL (elbow), Eli White: 10-Day IL (foot), Willson Contreras: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Garrett Crochet: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Curtis Mead: 10-Day IL (hand), Justin Slaten: 15-Day IL (elbow), Eduardo Rivera: 60-Day IL (back), Zack Kelly: 60-Day IL (elbow), Kutter Crawford: 60-Day IL (wrist), Ceddanne Rafaela: 10-Day IL (quadricep), Tayron Guerrero: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Masataka Yoshida: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Triston Casas: 60-Day IL (knee), Tanner Houck: 60-Day IL (elbow)

Royals: Maikel Garcia: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Jac Caglianone: day-to-day (elbow), Tony Gonsolin: 15-Day IL (elbow), Carlos Estevez: 60-Day IL (foot), Stephen Kolek: 60-Day IL (flexor), Connor Seabold: 60-Day IL (lat), Beck Way: 15-Day IL (back), Nick Mears: 60-Day IL (shoulder), James McArthur: 60-Day IL (elbow), Luinder Avila: 60-Day IL (forearm), Cole Ragans: 60-Day IL (elbow), Jonathan India: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Alec Marsh: 60-Day IL (shoulder)

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.