Royals vs Twins, Game 52 Gamethread

A divisional tilt between two contenders.

The 28-23 Royals head up to Minnesota to face the 27-22 Twins to hopefully unclog the logjam in the middle of the AL Central. The Twins have been on a tear recently to put themselves back in the conversation, but they are a very similar team to the Royals overall. Both teams focus more on run prevention than scoring. The Twins, however, are better than the Royals at scoring.

Let’s just hope the Royals pitching can bring them down to the Royals’ level.

The expectation for tonight’s game is that it’ll be Noah Cameron starting for the Royals and Pablo López for the Twins.

Cameron has made only two starts for the Royals at the beginning of his nascent career but has pitched well, allowing only one run in 12 ²⁄₃ innings. He has not struck out many guys, but he has limited hits with only three given up. Honestly I’m just glad that the Royals finally have some starting pitching depth. It hurts to lose Ragans and Lugo at the same time, but I feel pretty decent about how the Royals rotation stacks up even without them given they’re the top two guys.

López, however, in his third year with the Twins, is dazzling. His walk rate and homer rate are at the lowest of his career. Despite making only eight starts and having 45 total innings pitched, he’s 15th in fWAR among pitchers with at least 40 innings. Right next to Michael Wacha.

The Royals’ offense will have to scrape together something to be competitive in tonight’s game.

The game is at Target Field. It starts at 7:10pm US Central. You can watch it on FanDuel Sports Network Kansas City or listen on the Royals Radio Network.