MINNESOTA TWINS NOTES:
THE TWINS: Began their 63rd season with a 2-0 victory at Kauffman Stadium…today they will play the second of three in Kansas City, then wrap the series tomorrow afternoon…after tomorrow’s game, they will travel to Miami to begin a three-game series against the Marlins from Monday-Wednesday…following this trip, Minnesota will open its 14th season at Target Field with three against the Astros (April 6-9) and three against the White Sox (April 10-12).
OPENING DAY, JUST HOW YOU DRAW IT UP: The Twins shut out the Royals on Thursday after- noon by a score of 2-0, improving to 28-35 (17-22) all-time on Opening Day…it marked their first Opening Day victory since a 10-5 win at Guaranteed Rate Field on July 24, 2020 against the Chicago White Sox…Pablo López (1-0) was the starter and winner, pitching 5.1 shutout innings, with two hits allowed, three walks and eight strikeouts…he became just the second different Twins starter to earn an Opening Day win on the road since 1987 (other: Brad Radke in 2001 & ’03)…Caleb Thielbar, Jorge López and Griffin Jax each earned a hold as Jhoan Duran earned the save with a scoreless ninth…the offense recorded 10 hits, highlighted by Trevor Larnach, who went 2-for-4 with a walk, the game-winning RBI and a run scored.
Thursday’s start marked López’s first career Opening Day start, giving the Twins five starters in their opening rotation to have made an Opening Day start in their career (credit Elias): Sonny Gray (2014-15 for Oakland & ’20 for Cincinnati), Joe Ryan (2022 for Minnesota), Tyler Mahle (2022 for Cincinnati) and Kenta Maeda (2021 for Minnesota)…the last time the Twins had five pitchers with an OD start on same roster was April 1988: Bert Blyleven, Steve Carlton, Charlie Lea, Joe Niekro and Frank Viola.
The shutout was the Twins’ fifth Opening Day shutout in club history (since 1961) and first since a 2-0 victory over Cleveland in 2019 at Target Field.
ROYALTY CHECK: The Twins and Royals are playing the second of 13 meetings in 2023.
The Twins are 13-5 in their last 18 against KC since April 21, 2022, including a record of 5-3 at Kauffman Stadium.
Since the start of last season, Twins starters have gone 9-4, 2.42 ERA (104.0 IP, 28 ER) with 23 walks, 93 strikeouts and a .198 (75-for-378) BAA vs. KC…also seven quality starts.
Carlos Correa is hitting .354 (40-for-113) with six doubles, six home runs, 16 RBI, 17 walks, a .438 on-base percentage and a 1.005 OPS in 30 games against the Royals since 2019…he enters today with a 10-game hitting streak against the Royals…Correa has reached safely in 15-straight games at Kauffman, posting a .431 on-base percentage in that span.
Byron Buxton is hitting .315 (23-for-73) with seven doubles, three home runs, six RBI, 17 runs scored and a .924 OPS in his last 17 games against the Royals, reaching safely in all 17.
THE BUCK TRUCK ROLLS ON THE ROAD: Byron Buxton has homered in 10 consecutive road series since June 3, 2022 (June 3 at Toronto, June 13 at Seattle, June 17 at Arizona, June 28 at Cleveland, July 4 at Chicago-AL, July 10 at Texas, July 26 at Milwaukee, July 29 & 30 at San Diego, August 9 at Los Angeles-NL and August 14 at Los Angeles-AL)…it is tied with Miguel Sanó (September 2016-June 2017) for the longest streak by a Twin (since 1961)…it marks the longest by any player since Justin Turner did it in 10-straight from June-September of 2019… the last player in baseball to go 11-straight road series’ with a homer was Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard from June-September of 2006 (Elias).
Buck has 98 career home runs, needing two to become the 20th Twin to reach 100 career homers (since 1961)…last Twin to reach 100 was Max Kepler on September 20, 2020 at Chicago-NL.
ROAD ‘LOS: In his last 26 road games, dating back to August 13, 2022, Carlos Correa is hitting .330 (33-for-100) with four doubles, five home runs, 13 RBI, 11 walks, a .395 on-base percentage and a .915 OPS…since that date, his road average and OBP both rank fifth among all AL players (min. 100 PA) and his OPS ranks sixth.
SERIES STUFF: A victory today would secure the first series win of the season for the Twins…in 2022, they went 21-24-6 in series play, going 14-8-4 at home and 7-16-2 on the road; they didn’t win their first series until a three-game sweep of the White Sox at Target Field from April 22-24, starting 0-2-2…their first road series win came April 29-May 1 at Tampa Bay, taking two of three against the Rays.
ALL SAINTS DAY: The St. Paul Saints lost a close one, 7-4, in their season opener yesterday in Toledo…Edouard Julien (1-for-4) and Kyle arlick (1-for-4) both homered in the loss.
STARTING PITCHER
SONNY GRAY 54
Will face Kansas City for the 11th time in his career, is 7-2 1.66 ERA (65.0 IP, 12 ER), with 12 walks and 59 strikeouts…In 2022 went 3-0, 0.47 ERA (19.0 IP, 1 ER) with two walks and 22 strikeouts in three starts against Kansas City Acquired by the Twins on March 13, 2022 in a trade with the Reds, along with right-handed pitcher Francis Peguero, in exchange for right-handed pitcher Chase Petty.
CAREER NOTES
• Twins are fourth organization (Oakland 2011-17, New York-AL 2017-18 and Cincinnati 2019-21).
• Acquired by Minnesota on March 13, 2022 in a trade with the Reds, along with righthanded pitcher Francis Peguero, in exchange for right-handed pitcher Chase Petty.
• Has made seven Opening Day rosters with the Athletics (2014-2016), Yankees (2018), Reds (2019-2020) and Twins (2022).
• Named to American League All-Star team in 2015 for Oakland and the National League squad in 2019 for Cincinnati (did not pitch in either).
• 2019 recipient of the Johnny Vander Meer Award as the Reds’ Most Outstanding Pitcher and finished second to Atlanta’s Josh Donaldson in voting for the MLBPA’s National League Comeback Player of the Year Award.
• Named to Baseball America’s 2019 major league All-Star second team…named American League Pitcher of the Month for April in 2014…in 2013 was the Athletics’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year and a Baseball America Triple-A All-Star.
• Originally selected by Oakland in first round (18th overall) in 2011 First-Year Player Draft out of Vanderbilt University…led Vandy to its first NCAA College World Series berth in 2011.
• Is 0-2, 2.95 ERA (21.1 IP, 7 ER) with 12 walks, 18 strikeouts and a .189 opponent batting average in four career Postseason starts.
KANSAS CITY ROYALS NOTES:
OPENING DAY: The Royals suffered a 2-0 loss to the Twins on Thursday in front of a sellout crowd of 38,351, the first sellout at Kauffman Stadium since Aug. 11, 2018…making his 7th career Opening Day start, Zack Greinke was charged with 2 runs on 6 hits and 1 walk over 5.1 innings, with both runs coming in the 6th, including 1 after he exited…against Twins starter Pablo López the Royals had two on and no out in the 4th and loaded the bases with 1 out in the 5th but failed to score, as the offense went 0-for-6 in scoring situations.
Thursday marked the fifth time the Royals have been shut out on Opening Day, but it was their first in their home ballpark…the Royals 2 hits were the Royals fewest in franchise history on Opening Day.
The 2-hour, 32-minute game was the Royals fastest Opening Day game since 2012 in Anaheim (2:22) and it was the fifth-fastest Opening Day game at home and the fastest since 2003 vs. the White Sox (2:05).
At 67°, Thursday was the warmest Opening Day at Kauffman Stadium since 2016, when the Royals began the season vs. the Mets in 74° weather after receiving their 2015 World Series championship rings.
The Royals are 20-35 all-time on Opening Day, including 1-4 vs. the Twins, and are 5-6 all-time in March.
All 30 teams played Thursday, marking the first time since 1968, according to Sarah Langs, that every team played its 1st game on the same date…this was scheduled to happen in 2018 & 2021 but weather intervened.
CAPTAIN SALVY: The Royals announced prior to Thursday’s season-opening game that Salvador Perez has been named team Captain…Perez, 32, joins Royals Hall of Famers George Brett (1989-93), Frank White (1989-90) and Mike Sweeney (2003-07) as the only team Captains in club history…Salvy is a seven-time American League All-Star, a five-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner, a four-time Silver Slugger Award winner and a two-time Royals Les Milgram Player of the Year…he was unanimously named the Most Valuable Player of the 2015 World Series, and ranks among the Royals all-time leaders in home runs (223, 2nd), RBI (732, 7th), extra-base hits (470, 7th), total bases (2,202, 8th), doubles (236, 9th) and hits (1,275, 8th).
APRIL FOOLS: The Royals are 2-3 all-time on April Fools’ Day, an annual custom of practical jokes and hoaxes…despite playing on April 1 only five times in the previous 54 seasons, the Royals have had some eventful games on this date…two years ago to the date, the Royals earned a 14-10 win over the Rangers on Opening Day, overcoming a 5-run deficit in the 1st inning…on this date in 2011, Kila Ka’aihue hit a walkoff homer in the 9th inning to lift Kansas City to a 2-1 win over the Angels in the 2nd game of the season.
ON DECK: After beginning the season with 3 day games vs. the Twins, the Royals will host the Blue Jays for 4 games starting Monday night…that series will include three 6:40 p.m. CT starts and a 1:10 p.m. CT start next Thursday to wrap the first homestand…the Royals first road trip will take them to San Francisco next weekend for the Giants home opener, then to Texas—where they played 2 exhibition games earlier this week—for 3 night games…today marks the first of 12 consecutive days with a game before the next off day on Thursday, April 13.
VS. TWINS: The Royals and Twins will play 13 games against each other in 2023 as part of Major League Baseball’s balanced schedule…excluding 2020, the 13 games this year will be the fewest between these two teams in a single season since 2000 (12)…the Royals will travel to Target Field for a 4-game set from April 27- 30 and for 3 games from July 3-5, and they’ll host the Twins back here at Kauffman Stadium from July 28- 30.
The Royals 413 wins and 445 losses vs. the Twins are both their most vs. any opponent…last season, the Royals went 7-12 vs. Minnesota to lose the season series vs. the Twins for the first time since 2019.
BALANCED SCHEDULE: For the first time since Interleague play was introduced in 1997, Major League Baseball has adopted a balanced schedule starting in 2023, in which the Royals will play all other 29 teams…they’ll play a total of 52 games vs. American League Central opponents, 64 games vs. teams from the American League East and West and 46 Interleague games, including 4 vs. St. Louis and 3 vs. all others…following their 2-game set at Busch Stadium from May 29-30, the Royals are scheduled for back-to-back off days on May 31-June 1, before beginning a 3-game homestand vs. Colorado…this will mark the first time that the Royals will have scheduled back-to-back off days since April 6-7, 2016…another scheduling quirk later in the season will come after the Royals host the Cardinals for 2 games from Aug. 11-12…on the following day, Sunday, Aug. 13, the Royals have a scheduled off day, which will be the first known originally scheduled off day on a Sunday in Royals history.
PACE OF PLAY: In addition to the balanced schedule, another big change for the 2023 season is the new pitch timer rules, which provided stunning results during Spring Training…in 453 games that lasted 9 innings across both leagues this spring, the average time of game was 2 hours, 34 minutes, and only 40 of those 453 games (8.8%) lasted at least 3 hours…Kansas City played 33 Cactus League games and 31 of them lasted 9 innings with an average of 2 hours, 31 minutes, slightly below league average…the other 2 games were shortened by rain… the Royals longest game of the spring was a 3-hour affair on March 11 vs. Milwaukee and their shortest 9-inning game was Sunday’s contest in Mesa vs. the Cubs, in which they finished in 1 hour, 57 minutes…in the 2022 regular season, the Royals average time of game was 3 hours, 3 minutes, which tied for the 4th-fastest in the Majors. Ê Through 20 games across Major League Baseball over the first two days of the regular season, the average game time has been 2 hours, 42 minutes, and only 6 of the 20 games (30%) lasted at least 3 hours.
TODAY’S STARTER – RHP JORDAN LYLES (12-11, 4.42 ERA IN 2022)
JORDAN LYLES begins his tenure with Kansas City after signing a two-year contract with the Royals during the offseason…a steward of reliability, Lyles has made 62 starts and 2 relief appearances over the last two seasons with Texas (2021) and Baltimore (2022), ranking tied for 6th in the AL in starts, trailing only José Berríos, Dylan Cease and Robbie Ray (64 each) and Gerrit Cole and Nick Pivetta (63).
2022 IN REVIEW: Lyles led the Orioles with a career-high 32 starts in his only season with Baltimore last year, which tied for the 3rd most in the American League…he matched a career high with 12 wins, the most by an Orioles pitcher since John Means had 12 in 2019, and the most by an Orioles right hander since Dylan Bundy had 13 in 2017…he matched a career high with 13 quality starts, also doing so in 2021.
Lyles eclipsed the 100-pitch threshold in 11 of his 32 starts (34.4%), tying him for 6th in the AL in 100-plus-pitch games, ahead of Justin Verlander and Shohei Ohtani, who both recorded 10 games of at least 100 pitches last season.
Pitching in the AL East for the first time in his career, Lyles struggled mightily vs. the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rays, going 6-7 with a 5.94 ERA (59 ER in 89.1 IP), and those teams combined to slash .301/.363/.523 (111-for-369) off him with 18 home runs…when facing all other opponents, Lyles was 6-4 with a 2.91 ERA (29 ER in 89.2 IP) and an opponents’ batting average of .249 (85-for-341) with just 8 homers allowed.
SPRING 2023 RECAP: Jordan made 4 starts in Cactus League play this spring, finishing with a 1-1 record and a 3.52 ERA (6 ER in 15.1 IP), 12 strikeouts and an opponents’ batting average of .196 (9-for-56)…his most recent appearance in an official game came on March 21 vs. the Cubs in Surprise, where he covered 3.2 innings and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits (1 home run) with 4 walks and 3 strikeouts.
SLOW TO START: Through the first eight seasons of his career (2011-18), only 115 of his 217 Major League outings (53.0%) were starts…but since the 2019 season, 99 of his 104 appearances (95.2%) have been in a starting role, making him one of 21 pitchers to make at least 99 starts since the 2019 campaign.
WORKHORSE: The Royals are the eighth club Lyles has played for at the Major League level…he has played in parts of 12 seasons with Houston (2011-13), Colorado (2014-17), San Diego (2017-18), Milwaukee (2018-19), Pittsburgh (2019), Texas (2020- 21) and Baltimore (2022)…since the beginning of 2021, his 359.0 innings rank 5th in the American League, including a career-high 180.0 innings with Texas in 2021.
He is one of only four pitchers in the AL to record at least 175.0 innings each of the last two years (2021-22), along with Gerrit Cole, Cole Irvin and Robbie Ray.
Across his 12 seasons and 321 Major League appearances, he has only been placed on the Injured List on five occasions: June 10-29, 2019 (left hamstring tightness), March 28-April 4, 2019 (right side discomfort), June 24-July 29, 2018 (right elbow inflammation), June 1-end of season, 2015 (sprained left big toe) and June 5-Aug. 6, 2014 (fractured left hand).
VS. MINNESOTA: On July 2 of last year, Lyles dealt 6.1 innings of 1-run ball with 7 strikeouts and just 1 walk against these Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis, exiting with a 3-1 lead, but didn’t factor into the decision as the Twins rallied for another run in the 8th and walked-off the Orioles in the 9th.
Oddly enough, the Twins are one of the three teams Lyles has seen the least, having made just 3 appearances (all starts) against them in his career, joining Baltimore (3 G, 2 GS) and Cleveland (3 GS)…he has pitched against them in each of the last two years at Target Field, but prior to 2021, hadn’t faced Minnesota since Sept. 4, 2013 while with Houston, when he opposed Twins starter Liam Hendriks…in his 3 career starts vs. Minnesota, he’s 0-0 with a 3.57 ERA (7 ER in 17.2 IP), 18 strikeouts (9.2 K/9), 4 walks (2.0 BB/9) and .224 opponents’ average (15-for-67). Ê In 8 starts vs. American League Central opponents in 2022, Lyles went 2-3 with a 3.17 ERA (19 ER in 54.0 IP), including 2-0 with a 0.93 ERA (3 ER in 29.0 IP) in his 4 most recent starts…that included a 3-hit complete game win last Sept. 21 vs. Detroit, in which he allowed just 1 run.
FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME: Over the course of his 12-year career, Lyles has fared better when pitching in front of his home fans, going 36-37 (.493) with a 4.76 ERA (358 ER in 677.0 IP) in 163 appearances…in 158 appearances (109 starts) on the road, he’s 30-53 (.361) with a 5.46 ERA (394 ER in 649.1 IP)…in 2022 while pitching for the Orioles, Lyles pitched extremely well while in Camden Yards, holding opponents to a 3.47 ERA (32 ER in 83.0 IP) across 14 starts, but was hit hard on the road, where he was hit to the tune of a 5.25 ERA (56 ER in 96.0 IP) in 18 starts.
Although he has yet to call The K “home,” he’s looking to change course in this ballpark, where he’s 1-1 in 3 starts with a 5.09 ERA (10 ER in 17.2 IP).
DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS: Lyles has been nothing if not a consistently strong defender, averaging exactly 1 defensive miscue per season (12 in 1326.1 IP)…however, he has not committed an error since Sept. 22, 2020, and has made 65 appearances (63 starts) since his last miscue in the field.
His 359.0 innings without an error since 2021 are the 2nd most among all pitchers, trailing only Yankees ace Gerrit Cole (382.0).
