The week ahead: Pirates travel to Kansas City, Minnesota
Here’s a look at next week’s Pirates schedule:
at Royals
7:40 p.m. Monday (SN PIT)
7:40 p.m. Tuesday (SN PIT)
7:40 p.m. Wednesday (SN PIT)
• Kansas City is looking to get on track after recent struggles, especially at the plate. The Royals endured an 8-18 slide in June in spite of the efforts of shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (.286, .338, .490), an AL MVP candidate who has 11 homers and 45 RBIs. First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino (.266/.327/.413) has added 12 homers and 47 RBIs. And 3B Maikel Garcia also has performed well (.309/.367/.476), but production drops off after that in the lineup for the Royals, who have fallen off the pace in the AL Central.
at Twins
8:10 p.m. Friday (SN PIT)
2:10 p.m. Saturday (SN PIT)
2:10 p.m. Sunday (SN PIT)
• The Twins welcomed back talented third baseman Royce Lewis on Tuesday after he missed two weeks with a hamstring injury. The first overall pick of the 2017 draft, he also missed the first 35 games of the season with an injury to the same hamstring. Center fielder Byron Buxton (.277/.342/.558) has carried the Twins’ offense with 19 homers and 51 RBIs. This will be the Bucs’ final series before the All-Star break.
Bill Hartlep is the TribLive sports editor. A Pittsburgh native and Point Park graduate, he joined the Trib in 2004, covering high school sports. He held various editing roles before assuming his current position in 2019. He can be reached at bhartlep@triblive.com.
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