The Minnesota Twins will aim to extend their American League Central division lead when they arrive in Kansas City to face the Royals on Friday night.
The Twins have won nine of their 10 previous games against the Royals this year.
Minnesota’s bats have come alive since the All-Star break, with 77 runs (5.9 per game) in winning nine of 13 since the break to take a two-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians.
Rookie second baseman Edouard Julien leads the offensive surge, batting .423 with six homers while hitting safely in 14 of his past 17 games. Kyle Farmer is hitting .355 with seven RBIs since the break.
“We’re scoring runs,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after Wednesday’s 8-7 loss to Seattle. “We’re having good at-bats, we’re driving the ball. We’re finding different ways to score. We’re playing kind of smaller baseball at different points of the game when we need to. Just a lot of good, good adjustments made at the plate today by our hitters and it’s been like that since we came back from the All-Star break.”
Minnesota scored 35 runs in winning four of six during a homestand against the White Sox and Mariners, with Matt Wallner contributing three homers in the past two games.
“Wallner’s whacking the ball all over the place,” Baldelli said. “Overall, it was a good homestand.”
Kansas City is again in a slump, having dropped 10 of 13 since the break to fall 25 games behind the Twins. They have lost six consecutive series.
Twins right-hander Sonny Gray (4-4, 3.15 ERA) and Royals righty Brady Singer (6-8, 5.55) will face off in the series opener.
Gray is winless since beating the Royals and Singer 8-4 on April 30, going 0-4 with a 4.24 ERA as the Twins’ bullpen blew eight saves over 14 starts.
In 12 career starts against the Royals, Gray is 9-2 with a 1.54 ERA and hasn’t lost to Kansas City since 2014. He won both starts this year, throwing five shutout innings April 1, then allowing one run over six frames April 30.
In 31 at-bats against Gray, Salvador Perez is hitting .194 with only one RBI. Matt Duffy has a home run and a double against Gray.
Singer took the loss against Gray and the Twins April 30, surrendering eight runs in 2 2/3 innings, including a three-run homer by Byron Buxton.
In 10 career starts against Minnesota, Singer is 2-6 with a 6.15 ERA, allowing 10 home runs, his most against any opponent. Buxton — who was activated from the paternity list Thursday — and Max Kepler each homered twice against Singer, with Buxton hitting .538 in 13 at-bats.
In his last start, July 22, Singer took no-decision against the Yankees, allowing two runs while striking out nine in six innings.
“He pitched well,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said after the 5-2 loss. “He did a great job. He got out of that sixth inning and gave us everything he had. Brady’s going to continue to come at you. He knows his strengths, he’s going to keep competing with you and he made a lot of quality pitches today.”
–Field Level Media
