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.

We have the first significant lineup tweak of the season, as Torii Hunter is batting second and Brian Dozier is in the cleanup spot. Dozier is flexible enough to fare well in the role. but Molitor admitted moving him down in the order puts him in danger of getting one less at bat and he also could be affected on the bases by slower players, affecting his speed game.

``And for Torii, who has had a lot of success in that role the past couple of years, even as a veteran player I think he's felt some of the burden of trying to help get this team going," Molitor said. ``So I'm trying to get him back in the mode where he's comfortable in taking pitches and shooting the ball to right and doing some of the things he's become very good at."

Royals (7-0)

Alcides Escobar, SS
Mike Moustakas, 3B
Lorenzo Cain, CF
Eric Hosmer, 1B
Kendrys Morales, DH
Alex Gordon, LF
Salvador Perez, C
Omar Infante, 2B
Jarrod Dyson, RF

Edinson Volquez, RHP

Twins (1-6)

Danny Santana, SS
Torii Hunter, RF
Joe Mauer, 1B
Brian Dozier, 2B
Kennys Vargas, DH
Trevor Plouffe, 3B
Oswaldo Arcia, LF
Kurt Suzuki, C
Jordan Schafer, CF

Kyle Gibson, RHP