Game one hundred and forty nine: Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals

Minnesota plays Kansas City tonight for the middle game in this three game set. The Royals took last night’s game, their first win against the Twins since May 28, and will go for the series victory in this matchup. The Twins playoff hopes are all but dead at this point. They are eight games behind Cleveland in the division with two weeks of games remaining. It would take nothing short of a miracle for Minnesota to reach the dance, so this game is effectively meaningless in terms of wins and losses.

Daniel Lynch starts for Kansas City. He has had a very disappointing season, showing flashes but mostly pitching ineffectively. Since his gutsy shutout start against the Dodgers on August 12, he has been a disaster, making six starts with a 7.06 ERA and 6.25 FIP. Two of those starts have come against these Twins. In those games, he’s pitched a total of 11 innings, with six earned runs allowed, ten strikeouts, three walks, and three homers allowed.

Minnesota will counter with Bailey Ober. He has also been disappointing in 2022, but that’s due to injury rather than ineffectiveness. He made four starts in April, missed about three weeks with injury, came back to make three starts, then went down again and didn’t return until last week. His first two starts back from his first IL stint were against Kansas City, totaling eight innings with four earnies allowed, nine punchies, and two walks.

Kansas City’s offense has been slumping lately but has scored 17 runs over their last three games. That’s one more than they scored over the previous seven games. Which version will we see tonight?

First Pitch: 7:10 pm CDT

Royals lineup

Twins Lineup