Twins Begin Three Game Set At Kansas City Tonight

Kansas City, MO (Learfield Sports) -- Although they were swept this past weekend, the Kansas City Royals remain well on their way to clinching their first division title in 30 years.

The Royals can make some real headway beginning tonight with the second-place Minnesota Twins visiting Kauffman Stadium, and Yordano Ventura will try to help while earning a seventh consecutive victory. He'll face the Twins Tommy Milone.

Kansas City (82-54) suffered a three-game home sweep with Sunday's 7-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox but remained 12 ahead of Minnesota in the AL Central because the Twins (70-66) fell 8-5 at AL West-leading Houston. Minnesota's loss dropped the Royals' magic number for the division title to 15, and they could get it to single digits by sweeping three against the Twins.

The Twins opened a nine-game trip by dropping two of three to the Astros but are still 1 1/2 games behind Texas for the AL's second wild-card spot following the Rangers' 7-0 defeat against the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday.