Twins vs. Royals: News and Notes

Probables

• Tonight, 7:10pm, FSN: Kevin Correia vs. James Shields
• Wednesday, 7:10pm, FSN: Andrew Albers vs. Bruce Chen
• Thursday, 12:10pm, NO TV: Samuel Deduno vs. Wade Davis

Royals Notes

• For one crazy, brief moment, the Royals appeared to be a real part of the pennant race - and if not that, at least the race for the second wild card. That, though, was before they lost every game they played last week, seven in a row in all; they're now ten and a half back of Detroit, seven back of the second wild card, just two games above .500. ESPN lists them as a 3.2% chance to make the playoffs. It's a shame.
• Yesterday, the Royals made up a game with the Rays - making it the first chance for budding prospect Wil Myers, traded to Tampa in the offseason for Shields, to play in Kansas City. He went 0-4 and struck out twice, which I'm sure consoles all the Royals fans who spent Monday's game yelling at him in right field.
• Speaking of that game, the attendance is listed as 20,000+, but by all accounts, fewer than 5,000 people showed up for a midday Monday game when the heat index was north of 100 degrees. We'll see how the Twins do Thursday, with a similar set of circumstances.
• Kansas City is in the middle of a stretch in which they play 44 games in 44 days; they don't have another off day until September 12.

Twins Notes

• Minnesota announced that they won't raise season ticket prices in 2014. On the one hand: good. On the other hand: how about a decrease, team that's been terrible for three years now?
• Rochester is a half-game out in the Triple-A Wild Card race, three and a half out in the division race, with seven games to play. I'd be somewhat surprised if the Twins see a lot of callups from Rochester before the Red Wings are eliminated; they've put such bad teams on the field there for so many consecutive years that I can't believe they wouldn't do everything they could to try to make it up to Rochester fans this year.
  
• While we're talking Rochester: Aaron Hicks has one extra-base hit in 66 plate appearances. He's walked 15 times, but has only eight singles and a double, for a batting average of .176.
  
• Joe Mauer won't play in this series; he's laying low, hoping to recover from his brain injury. We know how fiddly these things can be, so we're crossing all our fingers that this can evaporate rather than linger.