Twins on a roll on the road as they prepare to face the Royals

Greetings from Kauffman Stadium, where the Twins and Royals are set to kick off a four-game series.

The Royals have gone 9-2 to reach .500, and now there's rumblings of Royal playoff revival. They will have to play out of the minds the rest of the way while the pack falls back to them to have any chance at the postseason, but it's happened before.

Eric Hosmer is heating up after batting .190 from the All-Star break through Tuesday. Paulo Orlando has been a stud in center field. The bullpen has been solid and they are getting clutch hits again. They've won seven of nine games against the Twins this season, but the Twins are 16-8 on the road over their last 24 games. So it should be somewhat interesting to watch this series unfold.

The Twins arrived in KC from Atlanta around 1 a.m. this morning, so early work has been curtailed. But Miguel Sano is out right now working on some fielding drills. The Twins lineup has not been released yet, so I'm not sure if he's the DH tonight or at third base.

Joe Mauer should be back in the lineup tonight after getting Wednesday off because of sore quads. He better be in the lineup. He's a .344 hitter at Kauffman Stadium in his career. In his last 12 games here, he's hit .465.

Tyler Duffey takes a 3-0 record in August to the mound tonight. He has a chance to improve to 9-8 on the season, making him the only Twins starter with a winning record. I'm not counting Hector Santiago.

In minor league news, the Twins have extended their Player Development Contract with Class AAA Rochester.

UPDATES

Yep, Sano and Mauer are back in the lineup tonight. Molitor said he's not sure if Sano is 100 percent healthy, but said he's been assured by the trainers that Sano can't injure his elbow. We'll see.

Molitor was asked before the game why Jorge Polanco didn't play short in the minors but is playing short in the majors. Molitor indicated that the thought was that second was Polanco's best spot, plus he had enough experience at short to play there if needed.

Sure enough, Polanco said moving back to short has been no problem for him. Even though he didn't play there at Rochester, he took ground balls there. ``It's not that hard because I have played there before," he said.

If you happen to be in town for the series this weekend, Friday is Zombie Night at Kauffman Stadium. You have been warned.

Brian Dozier, 2B
Jorge Polanco, SS
Joe Mauer, DH
Trevor Plouffe, 1B
Max Kepler, RF
Miguel Sano, 3B
Eddie Rosario, CF
Kurt Suzuki, C
Robbie Grossman, LF

Tyler Duffey, RHP

Royals

Paulo Orlando, CF
Cheslor Cuthbert, 3B
Lorenzo Cain, RF
Eric Hosmer, 1B
Kendrys Morales, DH
Salvador Perez, C
Alex Gordon, LF
Alcides Escobar, SS
Raul Mondesi, 2B