Royals seek to rebound, win series vs. Twins
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(SportsNetwork.com) - The Kansas City Royals will try to win their third straight series to start the season when they close out a three-game set against the Minnesota Twins Thursday afternoon at Target Field.
The Royals were hoping for an 8-0 start, but the Twins had other plans with a 3-1 victory on Wednesday. Oswaldo Arcia belted a two-run homer in the fourth inning off Kansas City starter Edinson Volquez to break a 1-1 tie.
Volquez took the loss and allowed three runs, five hits and walked one batter across 7 2/3 innings. He struck out seven. Twins starter Kyle Gibson continued his success against the Royals, giving up a run on nine hits with no walks over 6 2/3 innings to improve to 4-0 in four career starts.
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"He commanded the ball really well," Royals manager Ned Yost said of Gibson.
Alcides Escobar recorded three hits and Alex Gordon went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Royals, who won the opener of this series, 12-3, on Monday. The Royals started 9-0 back in 2003.
Escobar is riding a 17-game hitting streak dating back to last season
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Kansas City will return home this weekend to start a six-game stay at Kauffman Stadium versus Oakland and Minnesota.
Taking the mound Thursday for the Royals will be Jason Vargas. Vargas won his season debut last Friday in a 4-2 victory over the L.A. Angels and he allowed two runs and five hits in six innings. He struck out three and walked one.
The left-hander has faced Minnesota 13 times (12 starts) in his career and is 5-3 with a 3.65 ERA. Vargas was 3-0 with a 0.96 ERA in four meetings with the Twins last season.
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Minnesota ended a three-game slide with Wednesday's triumph and posted its second victory of the season (2-6).
Gibson was able to control KC's lineup and relievers Brian Duensing, Casey Fien and Glen Perkins combined to toss 2 1/3 shutout innings.
"When you get a good starting pitching performance, it just makes everybody's job a little bit easier," Twins manager Paul Molitor said.
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Perkins struck out one in a perfect ninth for his first save and passed Al Worthington for sole possession of sixth place on the Twins' all-time list.
The Twins allowed 23 runs during their losing streak.
Danny Santana went 1-for-4 with a run scored and has hit safely in 21 of his last 23 games with an at-bat at Target Field.
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Minnesota will hand Tommy Milone the ball Thursday and the left-hander was brilliant in his season debut last Friday against the Chicago White Sox. Milone fired 7 2/3 shutout innings in the 6-0 win and scattered just two hits with seven K's and a pair of walks.
Milone has a 3-2 mark and a 3.75 ERA in six career starts against Kansas City.
The Twins target their first series win of the season Thursday and will host Cleveland for three games this weekend.
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Kansas City won 11 of its 19 matchups with the Twins a year ago.