The second half of the baseball season starts tonight for the Royals and Cardinals. Joe Maddon and his Tampa staff jump from St. Louis to Kansas City where the Rays are in KC for a weekend series. The Cardinals are hosting Arizona.

Brian Bannister (6-7) gets the start tonight against James Shields (6-6). Royals’ third basemen Alex Gordon is set to come off the DL, talks about his road to recovery from hip surgery. (Listen to his comments below)

Milwaukee, Chicago and Houston all won last night, they all pick up a half game on the Cardinals who send Chris Carpenter (7-3) out tonight against Arizona’s Jon Garland (5-8). The Cardinals are up two games on the Brewers.

Recently acquired Mark DeRosa will take batting practice in the cage tonight. He will most likely be activated to play early next week. If Cardinal fans are hoping for a trade to pick up Roy Halladay, you can forget about the team sending Colby Rasmus. GM John Mozeliak says Rasmus is off limits.

Listen to Alex Gordon