Kennedy to debut as Royals seek to keep Twins winless
Many have crowned the Minnesota Twins the AL Central's new up-and-coming team with the Kansas City Royals now an established power.
Winless through four games, that label's looking premature at the very least.
Coming off another tough loss, the Twins enter Saturday night's matchup with the reigning World Series champions hoping to avoid their worst start in franchise history.
Minnesota continues a frustrating season-opening six-game trip in which it's led or been tied in the seventh inning in three of its four losses, a trend that continued in Friday's opener of this three-game series. After Byung Ho Park's first major league homer put the Twins ahead in the eighth, the Royals scored twice in the bottom half to rally for a 4-3 victory.
The Twins are 0-4 for the fourth time since the franchise relocated from Washington for the 1961 season, with their bullpen struggles compounded by a lack of timely hitting. They finished 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position on Friday and are 3 for 33 thus far in those situations.
Minnesota is batting .209 with 49 strikeouts -- 14 coming Friday -- and scored nine runs through its first four games.
"We haven't been doing things that are conducive to winning, in terms of leaving men on base and not putting the ball in play enough," manager Paul Molitor said.
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It's the second straight year the offense has struggled out of the gate. The Twins scored one run in losing three straight to begin last season and started 1-6 before rebounding to win 83 games.
While the Twins continue trying to find their way, Kansas City (2-1) appears to have maintained the late-inning magic it displayed during last October's title run, when the Royals overcame deficits in eight of their 11 postseason victories after posting an AL-best 41 comeback wins in the regular season.
Salvador Perez sparked the latest rally with an RBI triple -- his first since Sept. 25, 2014 -- before scoring the go-ahead run on Omar Infante's sacrifice fly.
"They grind the first inning to the ninth inning," said Twins reliever Kevin Jepsen, who allowed both runs. "It doesn't matter if they're down nine, up nine. They battle. They don't give at-bats away."
Kansas City denied Saturday starter Tommy Milone (9-5, 3.92 ERA in 2015) three potential wins with late comebacks last season, though the left-hander fared well overall in his five 2015 meetings. He went 2-0 with a 3.30 ERA for the season series and posted a 1.89 ERA over the final three matchups, working at least six innings and yielding two runs or less in each.
Ian Kennedy makes a delayed Kansas City debut opposite Milone in his first opportunity to justify earning the largest contract issued to a pitcher in team history. The ex-Padre was slated to pitch Tuesday against the Mets but was pushed back by a mild hamstring strain.
Kennedy went 21-4 with a 2.88 ERA and finished fourth in voting for the NL Cy Young Award with Arizona in 2011, but is 44-50 with a 4.19 ERA in four seasons since that breakthrough. He still garnered a five-year, $70 million deal in January since the Royals needed to add an experienced arm to a rotation weakened by Johnny Cueto's departure in free agency.
The 31-year-old also must prove he can handle a switch in leagues, as he's 6-17 with a 5.49 ERA in 32 career starts against AL teams.
Trevor Plouffe is 3 for 6 with a homer against Kennedy but is off to a 2 for 16 start. Brian Dozier, who had two hits Friday after going 0 for 11 in the Baltimore series, is 2 for 4 in the matchup.
