Game Twelve: Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals

Kansas City could win their second straight series tonight.

The Kansas City Royals will do battle with the Minnesota Twins this evening at Kauffman Stadium. Having won the first two games of this four-game set, Kansas City could secure a series victory if they prevail tonight.

Seth Lugo will start tonight for the Royals. Though he has a 3.27 ERA across his two starts so far, it’s hard to say that he’s been pitching well. He has struck out just six batters while walking four across 11 innings. 51.5% of balls in play against him have been hard hit, while just 39.4% of them have been on the ground. Those are some scary red flags. Hopefully he can make it work against a Twins lineup that has really struggled so far this season. He last pitched against Minnesota last August and got rocked to the tune of a season-high eight runs allowed across four innings of work.

The Twins will counter with Joe Ryan. 2025 has been a mixed bag so far for Ryan — he’s struck out 11 batters without a walk across ten innings, but he surrendered two homers while taking the loss in his last start. He has one of the best four-seamers of any starter in baseball but doesn’t really have a knockout secondary pitch to accompany it. The Royals should expect plenty of heaters tonight.

In their twelfth game of the season Kansas City will run out their twelfth different starting lineup as Matt Quatraro continues to tinker in search of the optimal defensive alignment. Jonathan India will play left field, with Maikel Garcia taking over at third base, Cavan Biggio starting at first, and MJ Melendez on the bench.

First pitch: 6:40 pm CDT

Royals lineup

Twins lineup