Kansas City Royal vs. Minnesota Twins WATCH FREE BASEBALL: LIve Streaming Online MLB from Target Field at 2:10 PM ET
Following a successful homestand, the Royals will try to pick up their first road win by adding to their recent dominance over the Twins.
The Royals opened the season by dropping a pair of games at defending AL Central champion Detroit before winning four of six at home. They took two of three from Tampa Bay with a 7-3 victory Wednesday.
"It was a great homestand for us," manager Ned Yost told the team's official website. "We came in here after two real close losses at Detroit where we could've won either game and put together a 4-2 homestand."
The Royals (4-4) will seek some better results on the road while adding to Minnesota's early woes. The Twins (3-6) were swept in three games by Oakland in their first series at Target Field and had a season-low three hits while failing to score at least two runs for the first time in Thursday's 6-1 defeat.
The Twins will next take on the team that won 15 of 19 against them last season. The Royals claimed eight of 10 road matchups and outscored their division rivals 44-18 in winning the final seven of those games.
Bruce Chen will be opposed by right-hander Kyle Gibson, who also had a promising first start Saturday. He yielded one run and three hits over five innings in a 7-3 victory in Cleveland.
"I think I need to show I'm ready to make that next step. And I want to," Gibson told the team's official website. "My expectations for myself this year are really high. And to reach those expectations, I've got to work really hard, make those adjustments that I have in the works."
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire will miss the first two games of this series to go to Ohio for Saturday's funeral of Michael Hirschbeck, son of umpire John Hirschbeck. Terry Steinbach will manage the team in Gardenhire's place.
