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Royals, Twins hope to play finale

Apr 29, 2012 - 2:09 PM (Sports Network) - Playing on the road seems to have its comforts for the Kansas City Royals.

The team is a franchise-worst 0-10 at home this season, but has a 6-4 mark on the road. That includes three straight wins heading into today's series finale against the Twins. This follows a stretch of 12 consecutive defeats.

Meanwhile, the Twins are headed in the opposite direction with six straight losses.

Saturday's game was washed out and rescheduled for June 30 as part of a day- night doubleheader.

That gave the scheduled starters, Kansas City's Bruce Chen and Minnesota's Jason Marquis an extra day of rest.

Marquis pitched five innings in a win over the Yankees on April 18. He has started twice during the regular season in his career vs. the Royals and has won both times.

Chen, who has pitched seven innings in each of his last two starts - both defeats - has recorded 17 strikeouts against just four walks in 25 innings this season.

Over 17 career games, including seven starts, the lefty is 2-4 with a 4.78 ERA against the Twins. Chen carries a 16-inning scoreless streak vs. Minnesota into today's contest.

The Royals won the opener of this series 7-6 on Friday. Mike Moustakas drove- in the go-ahead run as part of a two-run eighth inning.

During their current losing streak, the Twins have been out-scored 41-22 and out-hit 63-50.

"We're scoring six runs, we just have to pitch," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire told the team's website. "It all gets down to the pitching part. I know we haven't hit with men in scoring position, but we're still putting enough runs on the board to win ball games."

On the positive side for the Twins is Joe Mauer's history against KC. He owns a career .349 batting average against the Royals and has hit in 20 of his last 22 against them, batting .482 in that stretch with 22 RBI. Additionally, he's batting .455 (10-for-22) against left-handed pitching this season.

Minnesota was 10-8 against the Royals last season.