There is nothing better in baseball than a final weekend series that has both teams with everything to play for. That is what we will be getting when the Kansas City Royals head to Minnesota to face the Twins on Friday. The Royals will be looking to land the number one seed in the AL, while the Twins while by trying to snag the final Wild Card spot. The Twins are set as favorites on MLB lines for today’s match.
Kansas City Royals vs Minnesota Twins MLB Game Preview
Date: Friday, October 02, 2015 Time: 8:10PM Venue: Target Field Opening MLB Lines: Minnesota -121
What a rally for @Twins! Minnesota gets 2 runs in the 9th to beat Indians, 4-2. They seek a wild card spot. pic.twitter.com/750OlayF94
— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) October 2, 2015
It looked for a while as though the Royals (91-67) would be a lock for the best record in the AL, but a stunning surge by the Toronto Blue Jays combined with a Royals September swoon now sees them a game off the pace. It has been a pretty alarming month of September for Kansas City, as they are sitting near the bottom of the league in terms of average runs per game given up. Contributing heavily to that ranking has been the poor performance of Johnny Cueto. After a bright start after coming over from the Reds, Cueto has hit an awful run of form, which is not what KC had in mind when they brought him over. He will have one more start this weekend, but you have to wonder if that will be enough to get him out of his funk. Chris Young (11-6, 3.15 ERA) will get the start for the Royals on Friday.
There is no other way to say it, the Minnesota Twins (82-76) need a sweep this weekend. They remain a game and a half out of the final Wild Card spot, and saw their postseason chances take a real blow by losing 10-2 to the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night. They will have one more against Cleveland on Thursday, and if they lose that, this weekend may end up being a meaningless one for the Twins (updated: Twins won the game 4-2.) The really disappointing thing for Minnesota is that they have finished strong, going 7-3 in their last 10, but they have hit that at the exact same time as the LA Angels getting red hot. The AL Wild Card race may very well end up going right down to the final day of the regular season. Ervin Santana (7-4, 4.10 ERA) will be looking to make it 3 straight wins with this start.
