Article: That's The Ticket: Battle For First Place

[Nick Nelson]

The Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals facing off in a high-stakes series for first place in June? Unthinkable a couple of years ago, it's a sign of the changing times in the AL Central, and you've got to love it.

 

The weather forecast for the next three days is spectacular, and our friends at Ticket King have tons of discounted tickets available, so let's dive in and examine the best reasons to get out to Target Field for Twins/Royals.Series Overview

 

The Twins have played pretty evenly with the Royals this year, winning three of six contests. It's fun to watch these teams match up because they have fairly similar profiles: productive offenses without a ton of power and solid pitching staffs without a clearly defined ace.

 

The Twins enter the series with a one-game lead in the Central.

 

Running Low

 

Interestingly, while KC's World Series run last year was heavily driven by speed and aggressiveness on the base paths, the Royals have stolen only 30 bases this season, ranking them ninth in the AL. That should make life a little easier for Kurt Suzuki.

 

No Lights Needed?

 

We're coming up on the longest day of the year, and each game in this series starts at 7:10 PM, so it's possible there will still be traces of sunlight as you walk out of the park after the final out. These are the types of evenings that summer outdoor baseball is all about.

 

Kendrys Rebound

 

Monday marks the one-year anniversary of the Twins signing Kendrys Morales, who sat out the first two months in 2014 before finally inking a one-year deal with Minnesota. Morales was terrible – first for the Twins and then for the Mariners – so many were surprised to see him get a two-year, $17 million deal from Kansas City during the offseason.

 

Joke's on us, I guess.

 

The DH has re-emerged in a big way in Kansas City, hitting .294/.356/.468 with six homers and 38 RBI through 53 games. He ranks third in the American League with 17 doubles.

 

Meanwhile, the Twins have gotten lousy production from the DH spot, but they're trying to address that with their own Silent S. Kennys Vargas was recalled on Sunday after hitting .308 in 16 games at Triple-A. He's expected to be in the lineup on Monday night.

 

Pitching Match-Ups

 

Monday, 7:10 PM: Jason Vargas vs. Phil Hughes

 

Hughes has once again been stingy with the walks this year, but he's been far from stingy with hits; he's allowed the most of any pitcher in the AL (86). The Royals lead the league in batting average, so this could be a tough one.

 

Fortunately, Vargas is quite beatable. The southpaw has a 4.79 ERA and the Twins have been significantly better against lefties (730 OPS) than righties (662).

 

Forecast (courtesy Weather.com): Partly cloudy, high of 82

 

Tuesday, 7:10 PM: Chris Young vs. Trevor May

 

May is coming off his best outing as a big-leaguer – seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts against the Red Sox at Fenway. He has completed at least six frames in each of his last four starts and has walked only one batter total during that span. Hard to believe it's the same guy that couldn't throw a strike to save his life in his MLB debut last August.

 

Young ain't so young anymore, but the sky-scraping 36-year-old has been very effective over 12 appearances for the Royals with a 2.56 ERA and 0.99 WHIP. As an extreme fly ball pitcher who doesn't get many strikeouts, his success has seemed a little fluky, and he may be amidst some regression. He's lost both of his last two starts, allowing 10 runs in 11 innings.

 

Forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 90

 

Wednesday, 7:10 PM: Edinson Volquez vs. Kyle Gibson

 

Volquez has been Kansas City's best starter, with a 2.95 ERA in 10 starts. He faced the Twins twice in April and performed very well both times, allowing four runs over 14 2/3 innings. He has allowed more than three runs only once in his 10 starts.

 

Gibson is coming off a month of May in which he went 3-1 with a 1.36 ERA, but gave up three homers against the Brewers in his first June start.

 

Forecast: Mostly sunny, high of 83

 

Click here to view the article

[h2oface]

"Interestingly, while KC's World Series run last year was heavily driven by speed and aggressiveness on the base paths, the Royals have stolen only 30 bases this season, ranking them ninth in the AL. That should make life a little easier for Kurt Suzuki."

 

Let us hope that is the case, and not the other viewpoint...... that Suzuki and the Twins' pitchers will make it easy for KC to steal bases and increase their season number.

[formerly33]

I know that we've all been talking about how people just won't take the Twins seriously and persist in singing the song of "bad team, good baseball." But this past series has gotten me, like everyone else, thinking on overdrive. How do I know it's not us more than anyone else who isn't taking this team seriously? Maybe instead of going crazy over a two-game losing streak we should turn it around and say "good team, bad baseball" like the White Sox.

 

Seriously, we have more reason to do so at this point than almost any other team.

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

Kennys is back! Kennys Vargas is back! I am hoping to get to at least two of these three games, I just have to figure out $$ and time.

[Halsey Hall]

Any of these games should be a treat to take in.  Perfect weather, fighting for first place and smoke dancing.  Attendance should be way up there, and I hope not to hear so much cheering for the visitors like the Brewers games had. 

[diehardtwinsfan]

Seems the team has been struggling a bit more.  Hopefully they take this series and get back on track.  Vargas I think will help.  Would still like to see some additional help in the pen.  Hopefully the starters each go 7 innings and my concern is moot. 

[twinsnorth49]

Vargas will help I'm certain of that, he's at least something for the opposing pitcher to fear in the middle of the order. Santana going down will get rid of that black hole he had become in the order and at the same time has the added bonus of keeping Escobar and/or Nunez out of LF (hopefully). 

 

Plouffe needs to get going again at the plate and Hughes needs to start dialing it in and getting his fastball back on the edges.

 

Oh the bullpen.....

[JB_Iowa]

 

 

Oh the bullpen.....

 

At least most of them are rested thanks to Mike Pelfrey.

Edited June 8, 2015 by JB_Iowa