KANSAS CITY -- In an effort to get Royals right-hander Matt Harvey on track, manager Mike Matheny will start him on Sunday vs. the White Sox in somewhat of an opener role.

Right-hander Brad Keller had been scheduled to start Sunday but was pushed back to Monday, just to give him an extra day’s rest.

Harvey, 31, has struggled in three starts this season, not making it past the third inning in any of them. He pitched in relief on Thursday, going two-thirds of a scoreless inning in his normal bullpen day.

But Matheny is hoping Harvey, who has a 14.09 ERA, could benefit from an opener-adjacent role, though Matheny doesn’t want to see Harvey simply unleash in a shorter stint.

“I’m cautious with that because I think when he tries to overthrow, he kind of loses his velocity,” Matheny said. “It’s not necessarily to let it eat as much as it is just to focus on this pitch and just this hitter, and not have to think or worry about getting through the lineup three times.

“I just want to see him do something a little different right now. It’s kind of what we’ve seen before with him where [he’s good] in that first inning or in that second inning, or that one inning of relief -- how can you repeat that?”

Matheny and his staff had thought of using a similar strategy with right-hander Glenn Sparkman in Spring Training as they were converting Sparkman -- who is on the 45-day injured list -- to the bullpen. Sparkman was pegged as a possible opener to allow for the opportunity to throw everything he had in the tank in shorter bursts.

“We wanted a little bit of that out of Sparky, but not so much with Matt,” Matheny said, “so that comparison wasn’t the greatest by me. The idea is the same, but the application is different. When Sparky really let it go, his stuff played up.”

Per Matheny, it’s possible that rookie right-hander Carlos Hernandez, who threw 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief on Tuesday, could piggyback off Harvey’s start Sunday.

The Royals view Hernández as a potential starter, and Matheny said that could still happen at some point in these final three weeks of the season. But for now, Hernández will provide length in a bullpen role.

With Kansas City using a six-man rotation, there are no openings for Hernández anyway.

Franco hobbling slightly
Third baseman Maikel Franco took a hard grounder in a sensitive area in the first inning Friday night but stayed in the game, though it was obvious he couldn’t get up to full speed running.

“He had some swelling,” Matheny said.

Franco actually had been dealing with another lower body injury prior to that.

“There’s nothing official from the trainers,” Matheny said. “But he has had a leg that has been sore. But he wants to play every day.”