Royals V. Twins: Game CLXI Thread

The Kansas City Royals take on the Minnesota Twins Saturday afternoon in the next to last regular season game.

Kansas City has gained some momentum in October, winning three straight for the first time since August 27th-29th. They look to keep that momentum on the arm of Yordano Ventura, who dominated the Cubs his last time out. He allowed only two hits and a walk while striking out six in seven innings. On the year, he is 12-8 with a 4.20 ERA and a 3.68 FIP. He is 11th in the American League in K/9 at 8.35 (min. 150 innings).

Meanwhile, Minnesota is hanging on by their fingernails for the 2nd Wild Card spot. The Twins need to win out and have Houston lose both games against Arizona in order to tie. Houston, by the way, edged out the Diamondbacks 21-5 yesterday, while the striped snakes were busy committing four errors. They also would need Los Angeles to lose at least one game. A three-way tie for the 2nd Wild Card would be keen. Peachy keen.

The Twins will counter with Tommy Milone (pronounced Mee-yo-n, as far as I am concerned), whose performance this season has been up and down as he has dealt with injuries. He is a prototypical Minnesota starting pitcher, who throws strikes and limits walks. He is 9-5 with a 4.04 ERA and a 4.40 FIP.

Home field advantage is still technically a thing, but let's not sweat the small stuff. It has the potential to impact three games, and that's only if a series goes the distance, which doesn't happen often enough to be meaningful. Let's just sit back, relax, and enjoy the fire.

LINEUPS

#HoodLove Lineup: Escobar 6, Zobrist 4, Cain 8, Hosmer 3, Gomes DH, Moustakas 5, Perez 2, Rios 9, Orlando 7, Ventura. #royals

— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughStar) October 3, 2015

Hicks leads off for #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/hgFviETdTO

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) October 3, 2015