Greetings from Target Field, where Twins will attempt to end their early slide against Edinson Volquez and the mighty KC Royals.
Alex Rios is not happy about suffering a fractured left hand suffered when he was hit by a J.R. Graham pitch in the eighth inning on Monday.
"It's very frustrating when you get inexperienced pitchers coming to the mound and showing a lot of energy, and not being able to control their emotions," Rios said ``I think that's a recipe for disaster, when you have guys like that, high-energy guys without being able to control their emotions. Then you put them in high-pressure situations, and they just don't know what to do, I guess. Things like this happen. So it's very frustrating."
It was a tough spot to put a Rule 5 kid in. And Molitor did say that Graham came into the game trying to do a little too much. More on this in the dead tree edition
Graham said he would never intentionally hit a batter and feels bad it happened. ``I wish him a speedy recovery," Graham said.
At 1-6, the Twins' start is the worst since the 1994 team went 1-6 - and that team had Puckett, Hrbek and Winfield in the 3-4-5 slots. A loss tonight, and it will mark the second time in team history that they have started 1-7.
It won't be easy. Volquez was scintillating in his Royals debut last week, giving up just one run over eight innings against the White Sox. Only four Twins have faced him before, so that could be an additional challenge.
``Brunansky gave them enough information to know that this guy really likes his off speed pitch, particularly his change up," Twins manager Paul Molitor said.
