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In what has been a lost season for the Kansas City Royals, a starter of the future has emerged in Daniel Lynch. The team is 7-2 in the past nine starts and will look to keep the good times going against the Oakland Athletics on Thursday.

Lynch has allowed three runs or fewer in seven of his past nine outings. He has a 3.67 ERA in this span after posting a 15.75 ERA over his first three career starts, all of which resulted in losses.

Oakland starter Paul Blackburn appeared to have straightened things out after posting a 2-6 record and 9.22 ERA from 2018-20. But he has gotten shelled in his past two starts to the tune of 15 hits, eight runs, and three home runs allowed in the span of 6 ¹/₃ innings.

The Royals bullpen was inconsistent the first part of the season, but entered Wednesday with a 3.40 bullpen ERA since the All-Star break, good for fourth-best in the majors, while the Athletics bullpen is the second-worst in the past 30 days with a 5.55 ERA.

With the Royals entering Wednesday winners of four of their previous five and Oakland fading in the wild-card hunt after a pair of home losses to the Texas Rangers and blowing a 6-0 lead to the Royals on Tuesday, Lynch will continue his hot second half with another win.

The play: Royals, +105.