Kansas City Royals vs. Minnesota Twins (8:10 pm ET, FS-N)
Kansas City Royals fight it out against Minnesota Twins in Game 1 (8:10 pm ET, FS-N) of the 3 game series on Tuesday, at Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Royals have a 24-32 home, 12-16 away record whereas the Twins have a 33-24 away, 18-9 home record.
For the Minnesota Twins, Injuries and illnesses keep piling up. The AL Central-leading Twins open a nine-game home stand Tuesday night against the Royals, back from a sub-.500 trip. Minnesota (33-24) is facing plenty of adversity, despite holding the biggest division lead in the majors at 3 1/2 games. Orlando Hudson and J.J. Hardy are suffering with left wrist injuries, and first baseman Justin Morneau has not started the last two games due to the flu. Right fielder Michael Cuddyer is expected to return as Minnesota looks to improve to 19-9 at new Target Field and extend its season-high four-game home winning streak and MLB odds.
Greinke (1-7, 3.60 ERA) will try to avoid matching his loss total from last year’s AL Cy Young Award-winning season; the Twins will be facing him. In a 10-3 loss in Minnesota on April 16, the right-hander walked a season-high five and has posted a 7.04 ERA while dropping each of his last three starts.
Greinke, who gave up four runs and a season-high 10 hits over six innings of Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Angels, said, “The last month I haven’t really been myself, I guess, everything looks tougher, like the hitters look better and the strike zone looks smaller. It just seems tougher out there at the moment”.
In the AL, Kansas City’s .279 batting average is among the best, but Greinke is receiving among the league’s lowest run support at 2.64. If the Royals (24-34) gave Greinke more run support, the game will improve to higher standards. With a 2.48 ERA in six road starts, Greinke is 0-4.
AL batting champion Joe Mauer has five RBIs against Kansas City and is batting with .481, this season. Going 5 for 26, Morneau, the 2006 AL MVP has fared worse against Greinke. The Twins will give the ball to Kevin Slowey (6-3, 3.84) as he looks for his third win in five starts, after going 3-4 in Seattle and Oakland. On April 25, the right-hander suffered his first career loss in five starts versus Kansas City. He allowed four runs and hits over 5 1/3 innings of the 4-3 defeat. Against the Mariners, Slowey yielded a run and five hits over seven innings Wednesday.
This season, Minnesota is 4-2 against Kansas City.
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