Game CLIV: Royals at Twins

As it stands right now, there are 12 teams playing relevant baseball. The Twins are one of those teams. There are 18 teams who have either been eliminated from postseason contention or are agonizingly close. The Royals are one of those teams.

Playing Kansas City seven times over their final 10 games is a match made in heaven for Minnesota, who have a comfortable four-game lead on the Indians, but haven’t yet clinched the division. Better yet, they have a series against the Tigers sandwiched in between, one of only three teams in baseball with a worse record than the Royals.

Losers in five of their last six games, Kansas City is 8-8 in September after starting 7-3 and will look to right the ship. They need to win three of their last nine games to improve off of their 2018 performance and can avoid 100 losses if they somehow win seven of their last nine. It is very unlikely, but hey, they still have a shot.

Mike Montgomery takes the mound for Kansas City coming off an ugly, but workable outing against Houston last Saturday. He gave up two runs across five innings of work, but walked a season-high five batters in the process and was defeated by former Royal and future Hall of Famer Zack Greinke.

He will be faced by Kyle Gibson, a familiar foe for Kansas City. Gibson has made more starts against the Royals than any other team not named the Tigers. Gibson’s best start of the season came against the Royals back on June 14, when he didn’t give up a run and surrendered just two hits across eight innings of work.

Here are your lineups for tonight’s action: