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Royals set rotation following All-Star break

KANSAS CITY -- Royals manager Ned Yost on Sunday confirmed his starting rotation following the All-Star break, and it looks pretty familiar -- which isn't a bad thing.

Right-handers Chris Young and Edinson Volquez will start the day-night doubleheader against the White Sox on Friday at U.S. Cellular Field. Jeremy Guthrie will start the third game of the series on Saturday, while left-hander Danny Duffy will take the mound in Sunday's series finale. Yordano Ventura will start the first game at home against Pittsburgh on July 20.

While general manager Dayton Moore said on Wednesday that he believes the rotation "has a chance to be much stronger in the second half," Yost himself feels comfortable with the state of his starters now.

"I don't need to see much improvement because I'm the one who is dictating how far they go," Yost. "I've taken these guys out of games after the sixth inning when they obviously could have gone farther because we have such a dynamic bullpen."

Kansas City entered Sunday's game with the second-best staff ERA in the American League, but the real marvel is its bullpen, which owns a 2.11 ERA, the best in the Majors ahead of St. Louis' 2.36 ERA.

"We can extend [starters] out depending on the health of our 'pen. We're going to have to extend Eddy [Volquez] out today a little bit," Yost said before the series finale with the Blue Jays. "We didn't have yesterday, in my mind, [Kelvin] Herrera or [Greg] Holland. Wade [Davis] could have closed, but we didn't get in that situation.

"You've got to make sure you don't overuse guys."

With the help of Yost's pitching strategy, the Royals became the first AL team to reach 50 wins this season and will enter the break with the most victories in the league.

Jordan Wilson is an associate reporter for MLB.com.
Read More: Kansas City Royals, Jeremy Guthrie, Yordano Ventura, Edinson Volquez, Danny Duffy, Chris Young