Know Thine Enemy: Royals Review
After last night's 19-1 pounding of the Kansas City Royals to open a three game series at Kauffman Stadium, the Twins find themselves one game back of the division leading Chicago White Sox. Tonight, the Twins look for their fourth straight victory and a move back into first place. Word is that Denard Span will be back in the lineup tonight, don't be surprised if Gardy keeps Jason Repko's hot bat in the lineup as the right fielder in place of Jason Kubel.
So far this season, Carl Pavano has done everything the Twins have asked of him, and more. Undefeated over his last nine starts, Pavano's consistency has kept the Twins in the Central Division race as other starters and the offense have struggled over the last month. Carl has averaged over seven innings a start and looks for his third straight complete game tonight.
About the best thing I can say about Bruce Chen is that he's left handed. Unfortunately for him, he's struggled against left handed hitters this year, to the tune of a 5.56 to 4.58 xFIP L-R this season. Chen throws a mid-80s "fastball" about half the time, and mixes a slider, curve and change. He walks over four batters per nine innings, so if the Twins hitters are patient tonight they could do some real damage. Chen has been hit hard in his last three starts, 24 hits and 12 runs allowed in his last 15 innings. But on June 10th, he got a win against the Twins in a 9-8 victory in which he gave up five runs in 6.1 innings, so anything can happen.
Lineups will be posted after the jump once they are available.
Lineups...