HEADLINE

Royals’ Merrifield can make team history vs. Mariners

Field Level Media

April 10, 2019 at 11:45 am.

With his club-record-tying 30-game hitting streak, the Kansas City Royals’ Whit Merrifield is the talk of the town. Well, except for his manager.

“I don’t talk about that,” Ned Yost said before Tuesday’s game when Merrifield led off the bottom of the first with an opposite-field triple. “You can talk about it; he can talk about it. I’m not going to talk about it. I’m not going to be the one who jinxes the streak. I don’t like (talking about) it.”

Merrifield is now tied for the team mark with Hall of Famer George Brett, who streak was in 1980. As reporters surrounded his locker before the game, Merrifield was nonchalant about any pressure that may be coming his way.

“Yeah, there’s a little bit of pressure,” he said. “It’s not a bad thing. I enjoy playing with a little bit of pressure. I know in this day and age when stuff happens you have to talk about it. I embraced it. It’s fun.”

Merrifield will go for the record on his own Wednesday against Seattle rookie Yusei Kikuchi (0-0, 4.02 ERA). The Mariners have the best record in baseball at 11-2. The Royals are looking to end an eight-game losing streak.

The Royals will send right-hander Heath Fillmyer to the mound for his season debut. He appeared in 17 games (13 starts) last season, going 4-2 with a 4.26 ERA.

The Mariners were “held” to six runs in Tuesday’s night’s 6-3 victory. They hit “only” one home run, but are still tied with the 2000 St. Louis Cardinals for the most home runs (33) in the first 13 games of a season. They’ve also hit at least one home run in every game, second only to the 2002 Cleveland Indians since 1908.

As well as the Mariners are playing, however, the focus Wednesday will be on Merrifield.

Just like Monday, Merrifield led off Tuesday’s game with a hit. “That’s the goal. Get a hit every time I step to the plate,” he said. “That’s what I want to do, especially when you have something like this going, to get it on the first at-bat. That’s ideal.”

Merrifield said he received a note from Brett, the Royals’ vice president of baseball operations. “It was on my chair,” he said. “(I’ll) put it in a special place in my house. To have one of the greatest of all time write you a hand-written letter and say nice things about you, that doesn’t happen every day.”

Seattle manager Scott Servais, who debuted in 1991 when Brett was still active, said, “George was a great hitter. Whit’s a different player. Whit reminds me of Michael Young. That’s my comp for him, having been around Michael Young for a long time. He’s an outstanding hitter.

“He has a good idea of the strike zone. He uses the whole field to hit. He’s a tough out. He’s as tough an out as there in this league right now.”

Yost, whose best hitting streak as a player was a six-game run in 1983, said it doesn’t bother him that Merrifield is openly discussing it.

“I’m cool with that,” he said. “It’s just that I’m not going to do it. I’m not superstitious either. I’m really not. But I don’t want to talk about it. It’s a phenomenal streak, but I’m not going to talk about it.”

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