Marquis was pitching effectively his last time out, in spite of the fact that the opposing bats were cracking on ball in play after ball in play. Unfortunately, Gardenhire left him in too long. The goal had been, apparently, to stretch Marquis out a little bit - but if the goal had been to get him to a place where he would be throwing 100 pitches a start, then taking him out at 97 would have been just fine.
This time around, Marquis is fully stretched out but he's going to have to find a way to be more effective. You can put the last couple runs on the manager from last time out, but that doesn't mean Marquis wasn't getting knocked around. He has to find a way to keep hitters from squaring up with regularity.
Check out some of those numbers on Chen. Less than a base runner per inning. Good strikeout-to-walk ratio. He hasn't allowed a single infield hit so far. His home run-to-fly ball ratio is low. He's getting batters to swing at balls outside of the strike zone. In short, he's doing everything a non-strikeout pitcher can do to make himself be as successful as possible and, yes, he's been the benefactor of some luck, too.
Hopefully the Twins can break up those streaks today. A win would be wonderful. Lineups after the jump.
Royals
Getz, 2B
Gordon, LF
Butler, DH
Hosmer, 1B
Francoeur, RF
Moustakas, 3B
Pena, C
Escobar, SS
Dyson, CF
Twins
Span, CF
Carroll, SS
Mauer, C
Willingham, LF
Morneau, 1B
Valencia, 3B
Doumit, DH
Plouffe, RF
Casilla, 2B