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KANSAS CITY Trace McSorley Jersey , Mo. — The Cincinnati Reds have the worst record in the National League at 24-43, but they still have a better record than the Kansas City Royals.

The Reds beat the Royals 5-1 in 10 innings Tuesday. The Royals have dropped eight of their past nine and are 22-45 overall. Only the Baltimore Orioles (19-47) have a worst record.

The Royals are 23 games below .500 for the first time since Sept. 13, 2011, when they were 63-86.

The Reds will go for a sweep of the two-game mini-series in Kansas City on Wednesday night. The Reds’ victory Tuesday was their first over the Royals since June 12, 2010.

Right-hander Tyler Mahle of the Reds and Jason Hammel of the Royals are scheduled starting pitchers for the series finale.

Mahle (4-6, 4.33 ERA) is 1-0 in two June starts, allowing 11 hits and two earned runs in 10 innings, while striking out 11 and walking four.

This will be Mahle’s first time facing the Royals, but not his first time on the Kaufman Stadium mound. He threw a mound session before the 2013 draft when the Reds chose him in the seventh round.

“They had a high school workout,” Mahle said. “Pitchers just threw a bullpen off the game mound; that was it. All the scouts were here.”

He said never pitching against the Royals does not change his preparation.

“It’s the same between every start,” Mahle said. “I prepare to go out there and hit my spots and compete. It’s a new team, and I’ve never seen them play before, so I’m going to do my homework and kind of make a game plan out of it.”

He said he pitches not to the Royals’ weaknesses, but his strengths.

“You always play to your own strength,” he said. “We’re going to find out what their weaknesses are and kind of find something there in the middle. I throw a lot of fastballs, but if there’s a guy who likes a lot of fastballs Ed Oliver Jersey , it kind of collides there.

“But, at the same time, if you hit spots, good things are going to happen. Obviously if you throw it down the middle, he’s going to hit it, but if you hit a corner, or something like that, always if you make your pitch, good things are going to happen.”

Good things happened to the Reds in the Tuesday victory. They trailed 1-0 entering the ninth, but Tucker Barnhart led off the inning with a blast off Kelvin Herrera that landed in the Royals’ bullpen.

“That is against one of the best closers in the game, so that was huge,” Reds manager Jim Riggleman said. “Both pitchers are pitching so good it’s probably going to be a home-run type game. Nobody was putting a rally together. They got one and we got one, and our bullpen really did a great job.”

Hammel (2-6, 5.12 ERA) is 2-1 with a 2.59 ERA in his last four starts after a 13-start winless streak in which he went 0-8 with a 7.28 ERA. He has issued two or fewer walks in 10 of his 13 starts this season.

Hammel is 0-3 with a 4.70 ERA in five home starts this year and is winless in his last seven Kauffman Stadium starts dating to Aug. 20.

He is 4-1 with a 3.42 ERA in 12 career outings (11 starts) against the Reds. He has won his last four starts against Cincinnati with a 0.75 ERA, but has not faced the Reds since 2016.

It didn’t take long for TJ Linta to select an agent for a potential pro football career.“After an exhausting search, I finally settled on JLSPORTS http://www.billsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-cody-ford-jersey ,” he says with a laugh.The agent there is one Joe Linta, TJ’s father.And also his coach in high school.Joe Linta doesn’t have a huge NFL clientele, but he’s one of the most respected people in the field because of his background as a coach and scout. It certainly didn’t hurt TJ that Joe Flacco is one of his dad’s clients, and the younger Linta happens to be a quarterback.Not a quarterback high on the radar considering he played at Brown and, after graduating last May, spent his final season at Wagner , both FCS schools. TJ didn’t get to throw the ball a ton at Wagner, of the Northeast Conference, in part because of an early-season finger injury that cost him two games, and also because the Seahawks had an All-America running back, Ryan Fulse.The 6-foot-3½, 232-pound Linta was not invited to the NFL combine in Indianapolis, but he was at a regional combine at Kansas City, an important step in his uphill battle to get noticed.“The biggest challenge for me mostly involves being the underdog in this draft class,” he says. “I wouldn’t want it any other way, though; it pushes me harder to prove myself every day.”He’s proven himself enough to some prominent NFL coaches and talent evaluators that 17 teams sent scouts to Linta’s pro day at Columbia Devin Singletary Jersey , his father notes.“Let’s look at the plays on film, he plays like a real quarterback,” Joe Linta says. “He has the arm strength and the brain and the physicality, doesn’t flinch in the wake of getting blasted in the pocket.”Then Linta stops his evaluation, recognizing he needs to make it clear he is talking from a football knowledge standpoint, not a familial one.“Yeah, it’s a little weird when calling a general manager or personnel director and talking about your kid,” he says. “But I’m not going to be apologetic. It’s 99 times out of 100 the most important grade for a player is my own; I’ve been doing it for 100 years. In this case, because of the nepotism, I wanted to make sure I did not have beer goggles on. Am I seeing what I think I am?“There are the traits there with TJ: toughness and intelligence, quickness in the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield, arm strength and accuracy.”Two keen observers of quarterbacks, former Browns coach Chris Palmer, who was Eli Manning’s position coach when the Giants won the 2008 Super Bowl, and former NFL QB Jim Miller http://www.billsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-dawson-knox-jersey , liked what they saw of TJ enough to identify him as a genuine pro prospect.Palmer saw “a very strong arm comparable to some of the players I worked with in the NFL. I would say his arm strength is a seven out of 10.” The highest mark Palmer ever gave in that category is a nine.“In this throwing session he displayed good accuracy, he carried the ball at chest height with no windup to the delivery,” Palmer adds. “Mechanically, he is very solid, showed very good quickness to catch and throw on slot screens. He clearly displayed a pro level arm.”Miller, now a host on SiriusXM NFL Radio and a knowledgeable evaluator of the position cites TJ “always gets his feet in balance when possible to make an accurate pass. Made off-balance throws accurately when necessary.”“I thought he read coverages quickly to get to the right guy,” Miller adds of highlights against such opponents as Syracuse and Montana State. “He’s oblivious to the pass rush, which you have to be, and reacted when necessary and sturdy in the pocket taking hits.”There are many drawbacks that small-school players, particularly QBs, carry when NFL teams consider whether to draft them or pass and then bring them in for OTAs, minicamps or training camp. Level of competition is among the biggest negatives; only one non-FBS quarterback was invited to Indy, and that was Easton Stick of FCS powerhouse North Dakota State.TJ Linta acknowledges that can be a difficult obstacle to hurdle. He simply doesn’t think that way.“One of my strengths is I don’t see things like that, being intimidated,” he says. “One of my good traits is I don’t really get rattled. One of the most important days of my life, I know Brian Burns Jersey , was at the regional combine, but you can’t think like that. I am what I am and here’s what I am.”Like most players on the bubble of getting drafted, Linta might have other avenues to the NFL. With the Alliance of American Football in its first season, which concludes at the end of April, and the XFL launching next year — plus the CFL, of course — there are additional proving grounds.His dad recognizes those — Joe Linta has represented plenty of players who’ve not immediately made the NFL — and also that TJ could see seven rounds of the draft go by without hearing his name.“What I want is for him to have his chance, he deserves a chance to compete and I would like to see him live his dream, as a father. But the pro signs are there,” he says. “Scouting is a very inexact science.”Although Miller isn’t a scout, he looks at film of hundreds of potential NFL players each year. Miller believes Linta could get drafted.“He should be in a camp,” he says. “I would take a flier on him in later rounds.”