Kansas City Royals OFFICIAL GAME NOTES Kansas City Royals (92-67) @ Minnesota Twins (83-76) Target Field - Friday, October 2, 2015 Game #160 - Road Game #79 Fox Sports Kansas City (HD) & KCSP Radio (610 Sports) UPCOMING PITCHING PROBABLES Saturday, October 3 @ Minnesota Twins: RHP Yordano Ventura (12-8, 4.20) vs. LHP Tommy Milone (9-5, 4.04), 12:05 p.m., FOX Network (HD) & 610 Sports Sunday, October 4 @ Minnesota Twins: RHP Johnny Cueto (9-13, 4.95) vs. TBA, 2:10 p.m., FSKC (HD) & 610 Sports Monday, October 5: Off day at home Tuesday, October 6: 1:00 p.m. workout at Kauffman Stadium (Open to the public) -- Press conference in interview room at 11:45 a.m. Tonight’s game is being broadcast in Kansas City on KCSP Radio (610 Sports) and the Royals Radio Network with Royals’ Hall of Famer Denny Matthews, Steve Physioc and Steve Stewart, while Don Free serves as the producer/engineer...tonight’s game is being televised in High Definition on Fox Sports Kansas City with Ryan Lefebvre and Rex Hudler on the call...the Royals pre and post game shows, Royals Live, are hosted by Joel Goldberg and Royals’ Hall of Famer Jeff Montgomery. Royals vs. Twins A SERIES WIN IN CHI-TOWN--The Royals are coming off their first road series win in over a month, as The Royals and Twins will battle it out for season supremacy KC took a 6-4 decision over the White Sox last night in U.S. Cellular Field to take the final two games of this weekend, with KC holding to a 9-7 lead with these three to the series...it was the first road set win for Kansas City since a 2-1 stop in Tampa Bay to conclude August... play...KC has gone 4-2 here this year, including a 3-game sweep Kris Medlen allowed just two runs (one earned) over 6.0 innings, retiring the final 10 White Sox he faced the last time it passed through in June...the Royals trail the all- time series by a 350-380 mark, including a 163-199 deficit in the to up his season mark to 6-2...Luke Hochevar was solved for a pair of runs in the seventh, but Danny Duffy, Twin Cities, but are a much closer 26-27 here in Target Field Kelvin Herrera and Ryan Madson closed out the affair, with Madson earning his third save of the year...the Date Site Score WP LP Att. Royals jumped on long-time nemesis John Danks for six runs on 11 hits, the most damage the club had ever 4/13 @ Min W, 12-3 Duffy May 40,123 done against the lefty who was 10-2 lifetime vs. KC entering last night...Mike Moustakas had a pair of hits, 4/15 @ Min L, 1-3 Gibson Volquez 21,362 including a run scoring double in the first and RBI single in third, while Jonny Gomes broke an 0-for-16 slide 4/16 @ Min L, 5-8 Milone Vargas 17,449 4/20 KC W, 7-1 Volquez Gibson 20,393 with a 2-run knock and then added a sacrifice fly. 4/21 KC W, 6-5 Young Fien 20,990 92 AND COUNTING--Last night’s win was Kansas City’s 92nd of the year, the most since 1989’s 92-70 4/22 KC L, 0-3 Pelfrey Guthrie 24,721 6/8 @ Min W, 3-1 Vargas Hughes 22,796 club and tying for the third best season in franchise history...the ‘78 Royals also won 92 games, while the 6/9 @ Min W, 2-0 Young May 22,497 1977 squad set the standard with 102 wins and the A.L. Championship club of 1980 won 97...last night’s win 6/10 @ Min W, 7-2 Volquez Gibson 22,434 also tied Toronto for best record in the A.L. with three to play, but the Royals have to get a game ahead of 7/2 KC L, 0-2 Gibson Young 37,196 the Jays if they want home field should they advance to the ALCS because Toronto won the season series... 7/3 KC W, 4-3 (10) Davis Thompson *38,868 7/4 KC L, 3-5 Duensing Blanton 37,917 this year’s squad is the sixth straight Royals’ club to improve its win total dating back to 2009...after winning 7/5 KC W, 3-2 Holland Boyer 29,427 65 games in 2008, the Royals then won 67, 71, 72, 86, 89 and now, 92...only Connie Mack’s 1919-1925 9/7 KC L, 2-6 Milone Ventura 36,825 Philadelphia A’s have achieved that stretch of continued improvement. 9/8 KC W, 4-2 Volquez Gibson (C) 31,834 9/9 KC L, 2-3 (12) Boyer Morales 32,286 AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL CHAMPS!!!--The Royals have won their first A.L. Central title in 10/2 @ Min franchise history, with the last division crown for the Royals coming in 1985, when KC was a member of 10/3 @ Min the A.L. West...of the now nine postseasons that Kansas City has qualified for, this clinching in game #152 10/4 @ Min was the third earliest in team annals, following only the American League title club of 1980 that iced the A.L. West in the 145th game of the year and the 1977 division winners, who clinched in the 151st game...this also marks the first time the Royals have played in the postseason in consecutive years since 1984-85. TWO-OUT SUCCESS--The Royals enter the final weekend with a Major League best .278 team batting average with two outs in an inning, 34 points higher than the big league average (.244)...KC also leads the Majors in hitting with runners in scoring position and two away at .281, which is 47 points up on the big league average...KC has plated 294 two-out runs, third most in the A.L...a season ago in 2014, Kansas City hit just .236 in two-out situations with 219 total runs...the Royals boast three of the top nine individual two-out hitters with Lorenzo Cain (.362) leading the league, followed by Kendrys Morales (.338) in fifth and Eric Hosmer (.304), who is ninth...Morales (68), Hosmer (66) and Cain (64) rank third, fourth and fifth, respectively in two-out hits...Morales, who is fifth in the A.L. in overall RBI (106) has driven exactly half of those in with two outs with a Major League leading 53 while shattering Joe Randa’s (2000) previous club record of 46. TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Chris Young (11-6, 3.15) vs. RHP Ervin Santana (7-4, 4.10) 2015 2014 Career 2015 2014 Career Chris Young vs. Twins 2-1 0-2 2-3 Major League Record 11-6 (3.15 ERA) 12-9 76-58 Ervin Santana vs. Royals 0-0 - 5-6 Major League Record 7-4 (4.10 ERA) 14-10 126-104 CHRIS YOUNG takes the hill for his 18th start and 34th overall appearance of 2015...tonight is his 206th career start, 223rd outing, while he faces the Twins for the fifth time this year, his third start...he signed a one-year free agent contract with the Royals on March 7 after pitching for Seattle in 2014, winning the A.L. Comeback Player-of-the-Year award. Young’s 2015 starts PHENOMENAL IN EMOTIONAL START--Chris made his first start in two DATE OPPONENT SCORE IP H R ER HR BB SO TP-K LEFT 5/1 vs. Detroit W, 4-1 5.0 0 0 0 0 3 9 81-51 4-0 months last Sunday taking the hill just hours after finding out about the passing of his 5/10 @ Detroit ND, 2-1 (10) 6.0 3 1 0 0 0 3 83-56 1-1 father, Charles...C.Y. chose to make the start despite the circumstances and fired 5.0 hitless 5/15 vs. New York W, 12-1 5.2 4 1 1 0 2 2 91-58 2-1 5/22 vs. St. Louis W, 5-0 6.0 6 0 0 0 2 2 106-61 5-0 innings, allowing only a fourth inning walk en route to a 3-0 win over Cleveland...the two- 5/27 @ New York L, 2-4 6.0 7 4 4 2 2 7 101-59 1-4 6/4 vs. Cleveland L, 2-6 5.0 8 6 6 1 2 4 94-60 2-6 out walk to Michael Brantley was the only baserunner against Young in a 68-pitch outing, 6/9 @ Minnesota W, 2-0 6.1 1 0 0 0 3 2 83-52 1-0 6/16 @ Milwaukee W, 7-2 7.0 5 0 0 0 0 3 89-63 6-0 marking the second time this season he’s not allowed a hit or a run in a start this season... 6/21 vs. Boston L, 2-13 4.2 7 7 7 3 3 2 86-52 0-7 he also tossed 5.0 hitless innings vs. Detroit on May 1 in his first start of the season, a 4-1 6/27 @ Oakland W, 3-2 6.0 4 2 1 0 1 4 96-61 3-2 7/2 vs. Minnesota L, 0-2 5.1 6 1 1 0 1 2 90-54 0-1 Royals victory...the win was his 11th, one shy of his total from last season...his 23 victories 7/7 vs.