KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It will be a premier pitching matchup Friday night when the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals open a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium.
The Twins will send right-hander Ervin Santana, a former Royal, to the mound for the first game. Santana brings a 10-4 record and 2.80 ERA into the game. He has held opposing hitters to a .196 average.
But he will not be the winningest pitcher or the one with the lowest ERA in this featured matchup.
The Royals will counter with left-hander Jason Vargas, who is 11-3 with a 2.29 ERA.
“He’s just been tremendous for us,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He went through the Tommy John (surgery) and worked very diligently in his rehab. It got to the point last year where he made three starts, I think about 12 innings, and ended up giving up two runs.
“You could tell that he was completely healthy, ready to go, which was good. He had a full winter and just hit the ground running in spring training and has never looked back.
“No doubt we were counting on him to be one of our starters. We knew how hard he worked in his rehab and how good he felt. The proof was at the end of the year with those three starts and we knew he would be back strong.”
Santana was 7-11 with a 3.38 ERA in 30 starts last season for the Twins. He is a candidate, along with teammate Miguel Sano, to be selected to the All-Star Game.
Sano leads the club with 18 home runs, 53 RBIs and .909 OPS. Sano was the designated hitter again Thursday in the loss at Boston.
“I’m trying to be a little bit mindful of DH’ing him here and there, especially during this stretch with Esco (Eduardo Escobar) being hot and all these left-handed (pitchers),” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “Just taking advantage of trying to keep him as fresh as I can.
“He’s played a lot. I think backing him off some of these games is good. Good chance he’ll play maybe at least three games defensively in Kansas City.”
Vargas and Santana are possible choices to start the All-Star Game on July 11 in Miami.
“I’ve already started to look at how I’m going to use those days to make sure everybody gets a little bit of extended time,” Molitor said. “It’s a little tricky with Ervin potentially pitching in that game and how we line them up coming back.”
Santana won his last start, June 25 at Cleveland, pitching six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. He is 6-9 with a 4.45 ERA in 22 career starts vs. the Royals.
He beat the Royals in the season opener, allowing one run in seven innings at Minnesota in his last start against them. He is 3-3 in 12 career starts at Kauffman Stadium as a visitor. He went 9-10 with a career-low 3.24 ERA in 2013 with Kansas City.
Vargas earned his sixth consecutive victory in the Royals’ 3-2 victory over Toronto on June 24. He held the Blue Jays to two runs — both solo homers — on eight hits, with two strikeouts and no walks, over seven innings.
His six straight victories are the most by a Royal since Zack Greinke reeled off 11 in 2008-09.
Vargas is 6-4 with a 3.75 ERA in 17 career outings (16 starts) against the Twins, including 11 scoreless innings over his last two starts. He is 6-1 with a major-league-leading 1.92 ERA in eight home starts this season and is 8-1 in his last 14 home starts since 2015.
The Twins play much better on the road (24-12) than at Target Field (16-25).
The Royals have played horribly within their division. After a 7-3 loss Thursday at Detroit, the Royals dropped to 10-20 within the AL Central.
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