Game CXLVIII Thread: Twins at Royals

In the span of a week we have seen the Royals pitch 8 perfect innings and a walk-off grand slam. What’s next for the intrepid youngsters? A matchup of the Royals aging, veteran innings-eater, Ian Kennedy, against a promising pitching prospect in Chase De Jong.

We all pretty much know what the deal is with Kennedy by now, right? He’s probably not going to be very good. We’ll hope he goes 6-7 innings so the bullpen doesn’t get decimated. De Jong is relatively unknown. This will be only his sixth start in the big leagues and only his second, this year. Not too unknown, though. His other appearance this season was Sunday against the Royals in Minnesota. He pitched four scoreless innings while striking out five and walking four in what eventually became a Twins 3-1 victory to prevent the sweep. The Twins acquired him in a trade with Seattle, earlier this year, and forced him to scrap his sinker. Since then he’s been a fairly impressive pitcher and it’s safe to say they’re counting on him to increase their ability to win over the next years.

Tonight’s game, unfortunately, does include both unnecessary veteran presences in Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar. Salvador Perez gets half the night off at DH after winning the game for the team last night with his walk-off slam. Honestly, this lineup should probably look pretty familiar to anyone who has been watching over the last few weeks. I’m hoping for a continuation of the battle between Whit and Adalberto for stolen bases. That’s probably going to be a lot of fun for the next few years.

Lineups