Fresh off of a fabulous Andrew Albers performance, the Twins have an opportunity to win a series in Kansas City less than a week after being swept by this same team in Minnesota. The Twins will send their “lead starter” (which as Babs pointed out on Twitter, is a lot more accurate than “staff ace”) Samuel Deduno out to do the job.
The Royals are sending Danny Duffy to the mound tonight, making his 2013 debut. Duffy started 20 games for the Royals in 2011, and then just six starts a year ago due to a torn ulnar collateral ligament, requiring Tommy John surgery. Duffy had mid-90s velocity from the left side, which could cripple this Twins lineup, but who knows what he has left post-Tommy John.
Oh, and no Joe Mauer tonight, so that’s one less lefty bat against Duffy.
| Minnesota Twins |
@ |
Kansas City Royals |
| Dozier, 2B | Lough, RF | |
| Carroll, 3B | Hosmer, 1B | |
| Morneau, 1B | Butler, B, DH | |
| Colabello, RF | Gordon, A, LF | |
| Doumit, C | Cain, L, CF | |
| Plouffe, DH | Moustakas, 3B | |
| Arcia, LF | Tejada, M, 2B | |
| Thomas, C, CF | Hayes, C | |
| Florimon, SS | Escobar, A, SS | |
| Deduno, P | Duffy, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Minnesota | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 0 |
| Kansas City | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | x | 5 | 14 | 0 |
Let’s be honest, we didn’t REALLY think our guys would win two games in a row, did we?
Sam Deduno certainly didn’t stink, but you aren’t going to win many games when you only score two runs. You’d think with 10 hits, you could scratch a few more runs, though, wouldn’t you? Twins were 2 of 11 with runners in scoring position and the Royals were 5 for 14. Pretty easy to tell from that which team won.
Those 16 strikeouts didn’t help, either. – JC