Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES Kansas City Royals (31-23) @ Minnesota Twins (33-23) Target Field - Monday, June 8, 2015 Game #55 - Road Game #25 Fox Sports Kansas City (HD) & KCSP Radio (610 Sports) UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES Tuesday, June 9 @ Minnesota Twins: RHP Chris Young (4-2, 2.56) vs. RHP Trevor May (4-3, 4.45), 7:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Wednesday, June 10 @ Minnesota Twins: RHP Edinson Volquez (4-4, 3.26) vs. RHP Kyle Gibson (4-3, 3.00), 7:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Thursday, June 11: Off day in St. Louis Friday, June 12 @ St. Louis Cardinals: RHP Yordano Ventura (3-5, 4.62) vs. TBA, 7:15 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Saturday, June 13 @ St. Louis Cardinals: RHP Jeremy Guthrie (4-3, 5.82) vs. TBA, 3:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Sunday, June 14 @ St. Louis Cardinals: LHP Jason Vargas (4-2+ tonight) vs. TBA, 1:15 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Tonight’s game is being broadcast in Kansas City on KCSP Radio (610 Sports) and the Royals Radio Network with Denny Matthews, Ryan Lefebvre and Steve Stewart, while Don Free controls the dials as the producer/engineer...tonight’s game is being televised in High Definition by Fox Sports Kansas City with Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler...the pre and postgame shows on FSKC, Royals Live, are hosted by Joel Goldberg and Jeff Montgomery. Royals vs. Twins SALVY SOLVES WIN DROUGHT--The Royals entered Sunday in the throes of a 3-game slide and 2-9 dry These clubs have split the first six meetings this year, with spell, but with one swing in the ninth, Salvador Perez staked Kansas City to a 4-3 win over Texas to salvage KC going 1-2 here, but returning the favor in Kauffman Sta- the series finale...KC had led 3-0 through the first six frames thanks to an outstanding pitching performance dium...the Twins handed the Royals their first loss of the season after reeling off seven straight to start the year...KC trails the by Jeremy Guthrie, but the Rangers tied the contest in the seventh with a 3-spot, all scoring have Guthrie’s all-time series by a 344-376 mark, including a 160-199 deficit in exit though he left with two aboard...as for Salvy’s blast, he nailed a 1-2 pitch with two outs in the eighth for the Twin Cities, specifically 23-27 here in Target Field his second homer in as many days and team leading eighth of the year...Greg Holland worked a perfect ninth Date Site Score WP LP Att. for his ninth save of the season...Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas each contributed a pair of hits to keep 4/13 @ Min W, 12-3 Duffy May 40,123 the Royals a game behind these Minnesota Twins in the A.L. Central. 4/15 @ Min L, 1-3 Gibson Volquez 21,362 4/16 @ Min L, 5-8 Milone Vargas 17,449 DRAFT DAY--The 2015 Major League Draft will take place this evening with the first round and the 4/20 KC W, 7-1 Volquez Gibson 20,393 compensation picks...the Royals have the 21st overall selection this year and then will have the 33rd pick as 4/21 KC W, 6-5 Young Fien 20,990 4/22 KC L, 0-3 Pelfrey Guthrie 24,721 compensation for James Shields signing a free agent contract with the San Diego Padres...rounds one and 6/8 @ Min two, plus the comp round will take place tonight, rounds 3-10 tomorrow and the draft will be completed on 6/9 @ Min Wednesday...tonight’s roster features five former KC first rounders including: Alex Gordon, Luke Hochevar, 6/10 @ Min Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Christian Colon. 7/2 KC 7/3 KC ROYALS A HIT IN THE BALLOTING--If the All-Star Game were today, American League manager Ned 7/4 KC Yost will have some familiar names to pen into the lineup as the Royals would have seven starters based on 7/5 KC the voting that was announced this afternoon...catcher Salvador Perez, he of the game winning home run 9/7 KC 9/8 KC yesterday, leads all vote getters with over 4.4 million votes, double the amount of tallies for second place 9/9 KC Stephen Vogt...Eric Hosmer has overtaken Miguel Cabrera and Kendrys Morales has jumped over Nelson 10/2 @ Min Cruz for first base and designated hitter, respectively...Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain and 10/3 @ Min Alex Gordon are also leading at their respective positions, while Mike Trout is second in outfield voting and 10/4 @ Min Jose Altuve leads Omar Infante for the start at second base. JGUTS BACK ON TRACK--Starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie has recovered nicely from the aberration that occurred on Memorial Day in Yankee Stadium when they jumped him for 11 runs in 1.0+ innings...in his last two assignments, Guthrie has allowed three earned runs in 12.0 innings, while limiting opposing hitters to a miniscule .125 batting average (5-for-40)...unfortunately, each game wound up a no decision despite giving up one run on two hits vs. Cleveland last Tuesday and then tossing 6.0 scoreless frames yesterday vs. Texas before giving up a pair of one-out hits in the seventh and departing with both eventually scoring, as did the tying run. NED TIES HOWSER--Yesterday’s win over the Rangers was the 404th for Ned Yost as the manager of the Royals, tying the late Dick Howser for second all-time on the franchise win list...now 404-431, Ned is only six wins short of White Herzog’s record of 410 wins when he skippered the club from 1975-79..already the all-time leader in games managed in Kansas City with 829, Yost took the reigns in Kansas City on May 13, 2010...this is Ned’s second stint as a big league manager after nearly six years at the helm for the Milwaukee Brewers (2003-2008)...he compiled a 457-502 record with the Brew Crew including a 166-146 mark in his last two seasons. LIGHT YEARS AHEAD OF TITLE YEAR--While the 2015 club has been in a funk over the last couple weeks, with yesterday just the third win in the last 13 games, it’s noteworthy that last year’s A.L. Champs were third in the A.L. Central, 6 1/2 games removed from first with a 26-28 record after 54 games...at this stage in ‘14, KC still wasn’t out of the month of May, which finished with a 12-17 mark, before flipping the switch in June to the tune of a 17-10 ledger...Kansas City enters game #55 tonight eight games above .500 and just a game behind these Twins for the top spot. TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Jason Vargas (4-2, 4.79) vs. RHP Phil Hughes (4-5, 4.96) 2015 2014 Career 2015 2014 Career Phil Hughes vs. Royals - 2-2 7-4 Major League Record 4-5 (4.96 ERA) 16-10 76-65 Jason Vargas vs. Twins 0-1 3-0 5-4 Major League Record 4-2 (4.79 ERA) 11-10 66-70 JASON VARGAS takes the hill for his eighth start of the year, his 212th overall appearance and 192nd career start...he’s making his second start of 2015 at Target Field and 16th career outing vs. the Twins (15th start)...the 32-year old lefty is in the second year of a four-year deal he signed with the Royals November 22, 2013. BACK ON TRACK--Jason earned his fourth victory of the season last Wednesday night Jason’s 2015 Starts at Kauffman Stadium, downing Cleveland for a third time in 2015, 4-2...he scattered eight DATE OPPONENT SCORE IP H R ER HR BB SO TP-K LEFT 4/10 @ Los Angeles W, 4-2 6.0 5 2 2 1 1 3 98-57 3-2 hits and allowed two runs over 6.0 innings with no walks and three strikeouts, throwing 86 4/16 @ Minnesota L, 5-8 3.0 10 5 4 1 1 1 63-43 3-5 pitches in his second start back from the disabled list...Vargas limited Cleveland to single 4/21 vs. Minnesota ND, 6-5 5.2 8 5 5 0 1 4 94-50 3-3 4/27 @ Cleveland W, 6-2 5.0 3 2 2 1 5 1 102-51 3-2 runs in the second and third, giving up an RBI double to Brandon Moss and an RBI single 5/5 vs. Cleveland W, 5-3 6.0 2 2 2 1 2 5 82-50 4-2 to Mike Aviles...he flirted with trouble in the fifth, allowing consecutive hits to open the 5/26 @ New York L, 1-5 4.0 4 2 2 1 1 6 76-51 0-2 6/3 vs. Cleveland W, 4-2 6.0 8 2 2 0 0 3 86-56 4-2 frame, but enduced a double play off Aviles’ bat and got Carlos Santana to fly out to end the 2015 Totals 4-2, 4.79 35.2 40 20 19 5 11 23 601-358 60% inning...Jason recorded his third quality start of the year...he improved to 3-0 vs. Cleveland, Career Totals 66-70, 4.22 1202.1 1228 595 564 149 353 790 - - marking the second time he’s defeated a team three times in one season, after going 3-0 vs.