McCullers Jr. expected to start for Houston against Kansas City

Kansas City Royals (56-69, fourth in the AL Central) vs. Houston Astros (74-52, first in the AL West)

Houston; Wednesday, 2:10 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Mike Minor (8-11, 5.34 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 139 strikeouts) Astros: Lance McCullers Jr. (10-4, 3.21 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 144 strikeouts)

LINE: Astros -235, Royals +193; over/under is 8 1/2 runs

BOTTOM LINE: Houston and Kansas City will meet on Wednesday.

The Astros are 40-25 on their home turf. Houston has a collective batting average of .267 this season, led by Yuli Gurriel with an average of .317.

The Royals are 24-38 on the road. Kansas City has slugged .389 this season. Salvador Perez leads the team with a .520 slugging percentage, including 52 extra-base hits and 33 home runs.

The Astros won the last meeting 4-0. Luis Garcia earned his 10th victory and Carlos Correa went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI for Houston. Brady Singer took his ninth loss for Kansas City.

TOP PERFORMERS: Yordan Alvarez leads the Astros with 25 home runs and has 85 RBI.

Perez leads the Royals with 52 extra base hits and is slugging .520.

LAST 10 GAMES: Astros: 4-6, .285 batting average, 3.44 ERA, outscored opponents by 15 runs

Royals: 7-3, .279 batting average, 2.70 ERA, outscored opponents by 12 runs

INJURIES: Astros: Justin Verlander: (elbow), Jose Urquidy: (arm), Andre Scrubb: (shoulder), Enoli Paredes: (shoulder), Rafael Montero: (shoulder), Tyler Ivey: (undisclosed), Kent Emanuel: (elbow), Pedro Baez: (shoulder), Chas McCormick: (hand), Alex Bregman: (hamstring).

Royals: Greg Holland: (shoulder), Jesse Hahn: (shoulder), Jake Brentz: (shoulder), Ronald Bolanos: (flexor), Carlos Santana: (hip), Adalberto Mondesi: (oblique).

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