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Royals-Twins Preview

Aug 12, 2009 - 5:40 AM By ANTHONY GIORNALISTA STATS Senior Writer

Kansas City (43-68) at Minnesota (54-57), 8:10 p.m. EDT

Having faced some of the majors' top lineups this month, the Minnesota Twins' pitching problems had been somewhat understandable. Their struggles against the Kansas City Royals, though, are a bit more perplexing.

The Twins look to bounce back from a terrible performance against one of the majors' lightest-hitting teams as they play the middle game of their series with the Royals on Wednesday night.

Minnesota (54-58) entered this series having lost seven of nine, with much of its troubles attributable to poor starting pitching. During that stretch, Twins starters had a 7.11 ERA as they faced a respectable Detroit lineup, along with Cleveland and the Los Angeles Angels - two of the top hitting teams in baseball.

In 23 games since the All-Star break, Minnesota starters have a 6.40 ERA.

Facing the Royals (44-68), the Twins' pitchers have a chance to settle down. The series opener, though, was another blow to Minnesota's confidence.

Kansas City, the lowest-scoring team in the AL, had its highest run total of the season in a 14-6 victory over Minnesota on Tuesday night.

"If we had all the answers it'd be easy, we could stop it, we could fix it right away," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, whose team has given up 11 runs or more in four straight home games.

The Royals have had a surprising surge at the plate, scoring at least six runs in five of their last seven contests, including a 12-6 win over Oakland on Saturday night.

Miguel Olivo and David DeJesus both had three hits to lead Kansas City's latest outburst.

Olivo homered and drove in three runs. The veteran catcher is batting .391 with two homers, two triples and five RBIs in his last five contests.

Olivo is 4 for 10 against fellow Dominican Francisco Liriano (4-11, 5.63 ERA), who will next take the mound for the Twins. He has posted an 8.71 ERA in his losing his last two starts and has dropped three straight decisions.

"I've been making the same mistakes every start," Liriano said.

The left-hander gave up four runs, eight hits and walked four in five innings of Minnesota's 8-1 loss to Cleveland last Wednesday.

Liriano is 1-2 with a 5.96 ERA in four starts versus the Royals.

Kansas City will counter with Brian Bannister (7-8, 3.97), who is coming off one of his worst starts of the season, giving up seven runs and seven hits in four innings as Kansas City lost 9-4 at home to Oakland on Friday

The right-hander now returns to the road, where he is 1-1 with a 1.74 ERA in his last three outings.

Bannister is 0-1 with a 2.92 ERA in two starts against the Twins, who are averaging 8.0 runs in their last four games.

Joe Mauer was a bright spot for Minnesota on Tuesday, going 3 for 4 to raise his AL-leading batting average to .369. The catcher is 15 for 29 (.517) with two homers and seven RBIs in his last seven games.

Mauer bats behind No. 2 hitter Orlando Cabrera, who has raised his average from .268 to .286 during a career-best 20-game hitting streak.