The struggling Kansas City Royals have a chance on Sunday to put together back-to-back series victories.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in these guys, top to bottom,” said Royals reliever Alex Lange, who earned the save on Saturday in a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins. “It’s a lot of fun to watch these guys compete and work every day. There’s a lot of fight in us.”
The fight will continue when the Royals play the finale of their four-game series against the Twins on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
The Royals won the series opener 8-6 on Thursday but lost the second game 5-3 on Friday before rebounding for Saturday’s victory. That guaranteed at least a tie in the set.
In their previous series, the Royals — who are tied with Detroit for last place in the American League Central — won two of three games against the Cincinnati Reds.
Royals manager Matt Quatraro praised his team after Saturday’s comeback victory. Kansas City trailed 2-1 heading into the ninth inning, but Carter Jensen evened the score with a sacrifice fly and Bobby Witt Jr. put the Royals on top after he ripped an RBI single over a leaping infielder and into left-center field.
Jensen batted leadoff for the Royals and Witt Jr. was in the No. 2 spot.
“When you flip the order over there,” Quatraro said, “you really like your chances.”
Twins left-hander Connor Prielipp (2-3, 5.26 ERA) will try to quiet the Royals in the ninth start of his rookie campaign. He has 42 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings.
Prielipp hopes to rack up back-to-back victories for the first time in his brief career. During his most recent outing Tuesday, he recorded the win against the Chicago White Sox despite allowing four runs on six hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out seven as Minnesota won 6-4.
This will be Prielipp’s first career appearance against Kansas City.
Royals left-hander Noah Cameron (2-4, 4.22 ERA) will make his 12th start of the season. The 2021 seventh-round pick is two innings shy of 200 for his career.
Cameron will look to build on a quality start in his last outing on Tuesday. He limited the Cincinnati Reds to one run on one hit in seven innings but drew a no-decision in a game the Reds won 4-3 in 10 innings.
Cameron has made three career starts against the Twins. He is 2-0 with a 1.04 ERA in those starts and has walked four and struck out 17 in 17 1/3 innings.
Twins veteran Royce Lewis could get another shot in the lineup one day after he was recalled from Triple-A Saint Paul. Lewis started at second base and finished 0-for-3 with a walk on Saturday, and his future with the club could come on the right side of the infield.
“When any player gets demoted, the first thing you look at is how they work and what their attitude was,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “He did a good job. … He went down, he did a good job, and he deserves to be back because of the way he performed.”
–Field Level Media
