Royals at Twins, Thursday, June 4

Welcome back to Thursday baseball. I had a couple of weeks off to recharge the ol’ game thread and recap batteries. The Royals played every other day of the week, so let’s see how they di—

Oh.

Oh, no.

Well, on the bright side, they took the series from the Reds in Cincinnati. Going into tonight’s series opener in Minnesota—the first of four, I should add—the Royals are 24-38, 11.5 games back of the Guardians in the Central and 6.5 back of the last Wild Card spot.

They also have the second-worst record in the American League (thank you, Arte Moreno) and are tied with the Giants for the fourth-worst record in the Majors.

Is this season lost? I don’t know. It’s hard for me to definitively say that on June 4. There are still a ton of games to be played. If the Royals reached the postseason, they’d join a list of many teams that started slowly only to rebound and make the playoffs.

The Twins, meanwhile, are 29-34, and just won a home series against the White Sox despite getting blanked yesterday, 8-0. Their three series before that one: swept in Pittsburgh, lost three of four to the White Sox in Chicago, and swept the Red Sox in Boston.

Baseball in 2026, am I right?

The Royals will send to the mound tonight Seth Lugo, who’s pitched pretty well his last three outings against the Red Sox, Mariners, and Rangers. Over those starts, Lugo’s tossed 18-and-1/3 innings while allowing six earned runs with 14 strikeouts versus four walks and 17 hits.

The Twins will counter with righty Andrew Morris, a rookie making just his second start and 18th appearance. Morris is 1-2 with a 4.07 ERA, 3.06 FIP, and 1.521 WHIP. His first start of the year came nearly a month ago on the road against the Guardians. He pitched…one inning.

Ah, an Opener more than a Starter. The Royals did well last time they faced a team utilizing its bullpen the entire game.

Here’s the Royals lineup:

Michael Massey is Michael Mashey recently. He’s hitting the cover off the ball. In his last 23 games, he’s slashing .323/.338/.581 with four home runs. A sliver of good news in a season gone awry.

Now, for the Twins:

This made me feel old: the Twins drafted Byron Buxton fourteen years ago today. He’s one of those great “what if” type of guys. What if he stayed healthy? Dude might be one of the best all-time. And yet, he’s still posted at least 4.9 bWAR in three different seasons including one in which he only played 61 games. He’s slashing .253/.314/.538 in 2026 with 17 home runs, ten more than the next guy on the team.

See you on the other side.