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The World Champion Kansas City Royals come off a disappointing home stand that saw the strength of their bullpen let them down against teams in the Wild Card hunt, heading to Minnesota to try to get right. Any hope for making the playoffs dwindles, but with the last place Twins next up on the schedule, the Royals can build some momentum against a team that frankly has not been very good.
*All stats courtesy of FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference
Pitching match-ups
Game One - Monday, 1:10 PM CDT
| Pitcher | G | IP | K | BB | ERA | FIP | xFIP | SIERA | fWAR | rWAR |
| Ian Kennedy | 27 | 160.0 | 154 | 50 | 3.66 | 4.72 | 4.59 | 4.14 | 1.3 | 3.1 |
| Jose Berrios | 9 | 37.0 | 35 | 23 | 9.24 | 6.18 | 5.50 | 5.18 | -0.3 | -1.3 |
Berrios has struggled mightily to be anything less than atrocious in his first taste of Major League Baseball. Bouncing up and down between the high minors and the big league club, Berrios has little left to prove in the minors, but there is no way to spin his nine starts as anything less than disastrous so far. The Royals have to hope that he doesn't choose his first start back on his third recall from the minors this year to begin to build a bridge across the chasm separating his minor-league dominance and his major-league putrescence.
Game Two - Tuesday, 7:10 PM CDT
| Pitcher | G | IP | K | BB | ERA | FIP | xFIP | SIERA | fWAR | rWAR |
| Dillon Gee | 28 | 106.0 | 84 | 31 | 4.33 | 4.88 | 4.60 | 4.35 | 0.2 | 0.6 |
| Ervin Santana | 25 | 152.1 | 119 | 41 | 3.54 | 3.78 | 4.20 | 4.34 | 2.7 | 2.8 |
Santana's still pretty good.
Game Three - Wednesday, 7:10 PM CDT
| Pitcher | G | IP | K | BB | ERA | FIP | xFIP | SIERA | fWAR | rWAR |
| Danny Duffy (L) | 37 | 149.1 | 157 | 32 | 3.13 | 3.48 | 3.81 | 3.46 | 2.9 | 3.9 |
| Kyle Gibson | 20 | 117.0 | 82 | 43 | 5.31 | 4.79 | 4.51 | 4.74 | 0.7 | 0.0 |
Despite his first-round pedigree, Gibson has turned into the flawed pitcher the Twins system churns out. The Mizzou alum gets by with middling velocity, the soft-tossing, pitch-to-contact hurler that shouldn't ever give anyone fits. Of course, he sometimes becomes that garbage thrower that confounds the Royals. It's entirely possible that despite his pedestrian nature that Cy Gibson makes an appearance.
The Batsmen
| Name | Pos | PA | HR | R | RBI | SB | BA | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | fWAR | rWAR |
| Brian Dozier | 2B | 586 | 35 | 89 | 87 | 13 | .276 | .348 | .559 | .378 | 136 | 5.3 | 5.6 |
| Jorge Polanco (S) | SS | 172 | 1 | 18 | 16 | 3 | .295 | .341 | .429 | .331 | 105 | 0.7 | 1.2 |
| Joe Mauer (L) | 1B | 538 | 10 | 67 | 47 | 2 | .275 | .374 | .405 | .337 | 108 | 1.5 | 2.3 |
| Trevor Plouffe | DH | 336 | 11 | 34 | 46 | 1 | .257 | .301 | .412 | .306 | 88 | -0.2 | 0.2 |
| Max Kepler (L) | RF | 369 | 16 | 48 | 59 | 5 | .244 | .321 | .460 | .330 | 104 | 1.2 | 2.6 |
| Miguel Sano | 3B | 432 | 22 | 50 | 58 | 1 | .239 | .324 | .459 | .335 | 107 | 1.1 | 0.2 |
| Eddie Rosario (L) | LF | 324 | 8 | 47 | 30 | 5 | .261 | .289 | .405 | .294 | 79 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| Kurt Suzuki | C | 329 | 6 | 32 | 44 | 0 | .282 | .323 | .426 | .322 | 98 | 1.0 | 0.9 |
| Byron Buxton | CF | 234 | 4 | 27 | 25 | 9 | .221 | .268 | .390 | .280 | 70 | 0.6 | 1.2 |
| Bench | Pos | PA | HR | R | RBI | SB | BA | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | fWAR | rWAR |
| Juan Centeno (L) | C | 161 | 2 | 15 | 20 | 0 | .252 | .294 | .364 | .286 | 74 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| John Ryan Murphy | C | 48 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .136 | .174 | .227 | .177 | -1 | -0.3 | -0.7 |
| Eduardo Escobar (S) | IF | 301 | 5 | 27 | 33 | 1 | .263 | .297 | .379 | .291 | 77 | -0.1 | -0.1 |
| Robbie Grossman (S) | OF | 318 | 9 | 43 | 31 | 1 | .269 | .384 | .437 | .360 | 124 | 0.5 | -0.0 |
| Logan Schafer (L) | OF | 14 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .308 | .357 | .385 | .326 | 101 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
Stats through Sunday, September 4
Brian Dozier has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball in the second half. Since June 18, the second baseman has clubbed 28 homers, scored 60 runs, driven in 62, stolen eight bases, and slashed .315/.367/.713. To say he's been on a tear would be a gross understatement. Byron Buxton has wasted little time putting his struggles from his previous call-ups behind him. In four games since getting recalled from Rochester, Buxton has slashed .563/.563/1.313 with three hung dongs in 16 PA. He's raised his slash line from .193/.247/.315 to .221/.268/.390 in a mere four days. It will be interesting to see how quickly a person can shed the "disappointing" label.
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