Gamethread XXLII: Royals at Twins

Since last we all gathered here the Royals have officially guaranteed they will not lose 100 games this season. That is a reason to rejoice. If we’re very lucky, we’ll get one more reason to rejoice and Salvador Perez will bang out eight more dingers before the season ends to set a variety of records, including the Royals’ single-season record. If he’s going to pull that off in the teams final 21 games it would behoove him to hit some tonight and tomorrow afternoon at the stadium where he has regularly crushed opposing pitchers, Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Royals will send the resurgent Brady Singer to the mound, tonight. Over his last four starts he has lowered his ERA nearly a full point from 5.42 to 4.58. Over that time has not allowed more than two earned runs in a start and not pitched fewer than five innings. He has allowed only a single home run and struck out nearly one batter per inning. In short, he has been very good. He has thrown his changeup more over than span than before but in his latest start, which was also his best, he only threw two in seven shutout innings. The potential in Brady Singer continues to be very high. He should be a very exciting potential breakout candidate next year.

The Twins will send Michael Pineda to the mound. Pineda is making his first start since sustaining with an oblique strain during a disappointing start against the Rays on August 13. He did appear out of the bullpen and pitched three shutout innings to earn a win against Cleveland on Monday. Pineda will likely be operating on a stricter pitch limit than usual and the Royals need to press that advantage to get him out of the game so they can feast on a weak Twins bullpen as early as possible.

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