The Kansas City Royals have won just two of their last nine games and took a 17-0 beating by the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.

That does not bode well for Royals' right-hander Ian Kennedy (4-10, 5.47 ERA) who has been knocked around in each of his last three starts, allowing a total of 15 runs on 19 hits while serving up six homers through 10 innings of work. Kennedy is 0-2 with a 7.30 ERA in three starts against the Twins this year.

Ervin Santana (14-7, 3.27 ERA) will take the ball for the Twins. They've won five of his last six starts and the right-hander has held each opponent to three earned runs or fewer during that stretch.

The Twins are 1-8 in Santana's last nine starts against the Royals, but they've won seven of the last nine meetings overall at Target Field. I don't see Kennedy and the Royals outperform Santana and the Twins here.

My selection is an 8* play on Minnesota Twins.