The Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins meet Saturday in MLB action at Target Field.
The Kansas City Royals look for a win after winning six of their last nine games. The Royals have scored 11 runs in their last three games and four or more runs in four of their last eight games. The Royals have won five of their last six games when scoring four or more runs. Salvador Perez leads the Royals with 53 hits and 29 RBI while Andrew Benintendi and Whit Merrifield have combined for 95 hits and 43 RBI. Ervin Santana gets the ball, and he is 0-0 with a 2.20 ERA and 10 strikeouts this season. Santana is 6-3 with a 3.80 ERA and 68 strikeouts in his career against the Twins.
The Minnesota Twins look for a win after winning six of their last eight games. The Twins have scored 13 runs in their last three games and four or more runs in five of their last eight games. The Twins have won six straight games when scoring four or more runs. Nelson Cruz leads the Twins with 42 hits and 24 RBI while Luis Arraez and Jorge Polanco have combined for 75 hits and 33 RBI. J.A. Happ gets the ball, and he is 2-2 with a 5.44 ERA and 30 strikeouts this season. Happ is 5-3 with a 4.17 ERA and 47 strikeouts in his career against the Royals.
The Royals are 2-5 in their last 7 during game 2 of a series and 5-1 in their last 6 Saturday games. The Twins are 4-1 in their last 5 during game 2 of a series and 1-5 in their last 6 Saturday games. The under is 5-1 in Royals last 6 road games. The over is 22-6-1 in Twins last 29 overall. The Royals are 6-20 in the last 26 meetings in Minnesota and 1-4 in the last 5 meetings.
You could make a case for either team here and right when the Minnesota Twins are showing signs of turning the corner, they throw out a struggling J.A. Happ. With that said, Ervin Santana has pitched very little this season and has a 6.63 ERA in his last 54.1 innings. Backing Santana isn’t much of an option these days. It’s Twins or pass for me in this contest.