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Game 153: Minnesota Twins @ Kansas City Royals

First Pitch: 7:10 CDT
TV: FSN
Radio: AM 1500 & TRN
Know Thine Enemy: Royals Review
Patron Saint: Amos Otis

All must-wins are created equal, but some are must-winnier (so not a word) than others. When you have two games against Zack Greinke and four games against the team you're chasing on tap, letting a game like this slip away is unacceptable.

Your starting pitchers:


W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2009 - Carl Pavano 3-3 9 9 0 0 0 0 57.1 62 24 23 4 12 43 3.61 1.29

As pleasant as the resurrection of Carl Pavano's career has been to witness, he has had issues with the Royals this year: 2-3 with a 6.75 ERA. He'll need to do better than that.


W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2009 - Robinson Tejeda 4-1 33 4 0 0 0 0 64.1 37 21 21 1 40 79 2.94 1.20

Tejada has done quite well for the Royals since being moved out of the bullpen, to the tune of two runs and nine hits in 22.1 innings pitched. Not a pushover by any means.

Your lineups, now with added Denard Span, courtesy Joe C.:

TWINS (79-73)

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Orlando Cabrera, SS
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Jason Kubel, RF
5. Michael Cuddyer, 1B
6. Delmon Young, LF
7. Jose Morales, DH
8. Matt Tolbert, 3B
9. Nick Punto, 2B

ROYALS (63-90)

1. Willie Bloomquist, LF
2. Mitch Maier, CF
3. Billy Butler, 1B
4. Mike Jacobs, DH
5. Alberto Callaspo, 2B
6. Mark Teahen, RF
7. John Buck, C
8. Alex Gordon, 3B
9. Yuniesky Betancourt, SS

A tricky game that the Twins have no business losing. If you're not nervous, you should be. Enjoy the game, everybody.

UPDATE: per Joe Christensen's Twitter, Gardy has officially named promising young lefthander Francisco Liriano as Sunday's starter.