Game 86: Royals at Twins

First Pitch: 7:10 PM Central Time
TV: Bally Sports North
Radio: TIBN
Know Thine Enemy: Royals Review

The Minnesota Twins had their much-discussed players-only meeting a few days ago and came out of the gates as if something serious was discussed, beating the Baltimore Orioles by a score of 8-1 in the series opener on Friday.

But then the Twins managed single runs in a 1-0 win on Saturday and a 2-1 loss on Sunday, and I’m not sure anyone feels much better about where things stand than they did at the time of the meeting.

On the bright side, the Twins return home to finish the pre-All-Star break schedule with three against the last-place Kansas City Royals and three against those same Orioles.

It’s a chance for the Twins to feel somewhat better about the close to the unofficial first half of the season; Minnesota is currently 6-1 on the season against the lowly Royals, who are 25-59 and have a -131 run differential but have won two in a row and are 5-5 in their last 10 contests. (By the way, while the Royals are only effectively three games better than the 23-63 Oakland Athletics, the A’s run differential is a ghastly -237.)

Rocco Baldelli will send Joe Ryan to the bump to face off against Kansas City’s Austin Cox, who is typically more of a middle/long reliever and will be starting just his second game of the season.

Enjoy Monday night/Fourth of July Eve baseball!