Kennys Vargas is back, just in time to face Jason Vargas tonight in what appears to be the only Vargas-vs.-Vargas matchup in major league history. They've already met in three previous games, and the Twins' designated hitter owns a two-run home run over the Royals righthander, but is 0-for-7 otherwise.
That feast-or-famine tendency is what the Twins hope their young slugger has addressed during three weeks at Class AAA Rochester, and they'll start to find out tonight. Vargas is batting fifth for the Twins, who open a three-game series against the Royals, who come to town one game back in the AL Central.
"It's going to be fun. I think our guys are looking forward to the challenge of playing some games, if you could call it, that matter here," manager Paul Molitor said. "We've got some fun series coming up — we're playing a Texas team that's turned it around, and St. Louis [is] the best team in the game. And we get the Cubs. Some fun clubs coming in here down the road."
Matter of fact, this Kansas City series begins a stretch of 13 consecutive games against teams with winning records, a good test for a team that has played remarkably consistent baseball for six weeks. The Twins have not lost three straight games since the season's first week, and they are the only American League team without a four-game losing streak.
"You hope it's a trend for where your season is heading. We remind guys that, a third of the way, your adventure has only barely begun, hopefully," Molitor said. "But it's nice. We haven't had a lot of [important] games in June. We've had some starts where we've lingered around .500 for awhile, but this feels a little different."
He hopes Vargas is a little different than when he went down, too. Molitor sounded happy to have a little more power in his lineup. And he knows Vargas is happy to be back. "You don't send people to make them appreciate being up here more, but that's one of the side benefits that you get. This is the place to play once you've tasted it," Molitor said. "He went down there, he did what we asked him to in terms of making some adjustments, not only his physical but mental approach to hitting, and the reports are good."
Phil Hughes is on the mound for the Twins in tonight's series opener. Here are the lineups:
ROYALS
Escobar SS
Moustakas 3B
Cain CF
Hosmer 1B
Morales DH
Gordon LF
Rios RF
Perez C
Infante 2B
Vargas LHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Hunter RF
Mauer 1B
Plouffe 3B
Vargas DH
Suzuki C
Rosario LF
Escobar SS
Hicks CF
Hughes RHP