Game 96: Twins at Royals

First Pitch: 6:15 PM CDT
TV: FSN
Radio: WCCO 830, TIBN
Know Thine Enemy: Royals Review

The Lance Lynn saga hasn't gone as well as anyone hoped. Just when the right-hander looked to be turning things around at the beginning of June, Lynn's been knocked around to the tune of a 7.64 ERA over the course of his last four outings.

On the bright side, Kansas City sophomore Jakob Junis hasn't been all that lights-out, either. Junis' ERA hasn't dropped since May 18th, steadily climbing from 3.51 at that time to 5.13 now -- just a few ticks off Lynn's own mark. The cherry on top was his most recent start against Cleveland, where he gave up eight earned runs in less than six innings.

Is today the day that Junis finally begins toning down that earned run average? Well, that seems largely contingent on the Twins' offense showing up before the ninth inning. Minnesota was scoring plenty before the All-Star Break -- in fact, the last time the team plated three runs or less, they were beating these same Royals on July 9th. In fact, the Twins have scored four or more runs in all but three games this month.

Back down to 8.5 behind Cleveland, the Twins need to finish out the weekend strong on the other side of the break.

GO TWINS GO!!!