NFL Tickets
The Kansas City Royals begin their first divisional series tonight against the 0-3 Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium.
To start off his 2016 campaign on the right foot, Yordano Ventura won’t need to try anything tricky against a struggling Twins lineup. Minnesota scored exactly two runs in each of its first couple of games, which were all one or two-run losses to the Baltimore Orioles. Some fans would hear this and think they’re “due,” which scientifically makes no sense, while others would take this as a sign that the Twins will struggle to put runs on the board this season. Oddly, both of these hypothetical fans would be wrong.
The Twins’ 2015 offense finished the year at 28th in on-base percentage, 26th in batting average and 18th in slugging, but managed to finish 12th in total runs. If anybody knows about manufacturing runs seemingly by magic, it’s this current core for Kansas City, but KC’s offensive numbers from last season actually suggest it would compile a high run total. Clearly, Minnesota’s stats do not.
At first thought, I pondered that Minnesota might be the easiest team in the division for Ventura to face first. Surely, he’d be in worse shape facing Justin Upton, Miguel Cabrera and the rest of the dauntingly good Detroit Tigers lineup, right? KC finished the regular season with the seventh-most runs scored, while Minnesota ranked 12th and Detroit finished 15th. Yeah, Upton makes Detroit better, but the Twins have an entire core of young guys who should improve to make their offense better, too.
Why do I keep starting my research for an article with one purpose, then go on to rant about how sneaky good the Twins are? They just got swept by a team that’ll average around 180 strikeouts per player this year, but I keep praising Minnesota, because I keep running into facts that concern me as a Royals fan.
Like I already mentioned, though, Minnesota isn’t playing great ball to start the season. Ventura’s velocity and natural stuff won’t make it easy on the Twins tonight, either. Current Twins have a combined 83 at-bats against Yo and a cumulative .647 OPS. Ventura won’t worry much about Brian Dozier, who has still hit less through 11 ABs, but Yo will be cautious with Eduardo Escobar. The Twins’ shortstop has four doubles in 12 trips to the plate this season, and five hits in 10 career at-bats against Yordano.
If Yo can control his stuff and stop Escobar form doing damage, he’ll have the upper hand against the Twins tonight. Minnesota’s upside still scares me, though.
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