Twins face Royals, look to build on combined 2-hitter

Minnesota Twins (67-78, second in AL Central) vs. Kansas City Royals (49-96, fifth in AL Central)

Kansas City, Missouri; Thursday, 8:15 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Twins: Stephen Gonsalves (0-2, 11.68 ERA, 3.00 WHIP, six strikeouts) Royals: Heath Fillmyer (2-1, 4.75 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, 37 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Minnesota will look for another strong showing after a combined two-hitter tossed by Jake Odorizzi, Trevor Hildenberger and Taylor Rogers in a 3-1 victory over New York Wednesday. The Royals are 3-7 in games started by Fillmyer. The Kansas City offence has compiled a .243 batting average as a team this year, Whit Merrifield leads the team with a mark of .302. The Twins have gone 32-30 against the rest of their division. Minnesota pitchers are averaging 8.6 strikeouts per nine innings, John Curtiss leads the staff with a mark of 13.5. In their last meeting on Sept. 9, Hildenberger earned the win in a 3-1 victory for the Twins.

TOP PERFORMERS: Eddie Rosario leads the Twins with a .287 batting average, while Joe Mauer is second with a .274 average. Willians Astudillo has three home runs and six RBIs while slugging .607 over his past 10 games for Minnesota. Salvador Perez is hitting .233 with 105 hits and 24 home runs in 114 games this year for the Royals. Adalberto Mondesi has 14 hits and is batting .350 over his past 10 games for Kansas City.

LAST 10 GAMES: Twins: 4-6, .235 batting average, 5.86 ERA, outscored by 23 runs. Royals: 5-5, .231 batting average, 3.38 ERA, outscored opponents by three runs.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.