The Minnesota Twins got their first shutout victory of the season yesterday against the Kansas City Royals. Thursday they aim to split their road series against a Royals team, that has just six total runs thus far in the series. This can aide struggling Twins starter Bailey Ober to work around trouble, and possibly settle in after a shaky early inning. Back the Twins to finish of their road series with the Royals with a victory.

The Royals are the better team, at home, coming off a game where it was totally shut down on offense, so the recipe is a bounce-back game. Plus, Kauffman Stadium is a house of horrors for Twins starter Bailey Ober (6.49 ERA in six starts; 8.64 ERA last season). I like five good innings from Royals starter Michael Wacha while the three bullpen aces are well rested.

Bailey Ober has been a disaster with a 12.15 ERA but he's actually been helped out by some bad swings from weak hitters. Getting key punchouts while allowing 16 base runners in 6 2/3 IP; but the Royals are elite at putting ball in play and will take walks, too. Michael Wacha's changeup has been suspect thus far and he is not commanding it as well as in years past. I'll eliminate the bullpens here and look for both starters to throw a few meatballs and let us cash this by the middle of the game.