Twins at Royals News and Notes

Lots of teams like to use the "Nobody believed in us," idea, but it has never been so true as it is for your First Place Minnesota Twins. (Can they call timeout for the last 156 games?)

Probables (all games FSN)

• Monday, 3:10pm: Kevin Correia vs. Ervin Santana
  
• Tuesday, 7:10pm: Mike Pelfrey vs. Jeremy Guthrie
  
• Wednesday, 7:10pm: Liam Hendriks vs. Wade Davis
  
• Thursday: Off day. Snow is predicted. Let's all jump off a bridge!

Royals Notes

• This is the year! (We are required by baseball law to start all discussions of the Royals with this phrase. We are also not allowed to talk about the riot that will occur if, say, this is not the year, and Wil Myers ends up becoming an All-Star in Tampa.)
• Sunday, Billy Butler drove in seven runs, including a grand slam, becoming the first Royal with seven RBI in a game since Jose Guillen in 2008.
• Keep an eye on the Royals bullpen today. KC led Philadelphia 9-4 going into the ninth on Sunday, but they had to use three pitchers - J.C. Gutierrez, Greg Holland, and Kelvin Herrera - to close out what became a 9-8 squeaker. Herrera and Holland also pitched Saturday, as the Royals blew a 3-1 lead in the ninth in that one. The boys in Royal blue are praying that Santana can go deep into this ballgame, because they're running short on arms.

Twins Notes

• It should be an eventful week for the front end of the bullpen. Tim Wood is eligible to come off the DL, and when he's done being injured, Minnesota will be faced with a choice. Josh Roenicke has pitched well enough that he probably won't be in contention to be removed, but if Wood makes the roster, either Casey Fien will have to be waived, or the team would have to move Ryan Pressly. As a Rule 5 pick, Pressly would either have to be returned to the Red Sox, or the Twins would have to work out with a deal with Boston to keep him.
• Joe Mauer is off to an extremely slow start, batting .217 with just one extra-base hit and seven strikeouts in the first six games. Aaron Hicks, at 2-for-26 on the year, has been even worse. I mention this as a reminder: if you are drawing any conclusions based on this six-game sample size, then I apologize, but you are a moron.
• Darin Mastroianni hasn't yet played a full game, and due to a sore ankle, apparently won't be ready to do so in this series. It does make you wonder why the Twins won't just bring up someone, say Joe Benson, who can do something more than pinch-run and play one inning in the outfield.