Kansas City, MO (Sports Network) - Despite losing sluggers Jim Thome and Jason Kubel earlier Thursday to the 15-day disabled list, the Minnesota Twins offense picked up the slack for an 8-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals to open a four-game series Michael Cuddyer drove in two runs for the Twins, who placed Thome and Kubel on the DL because of a strained left quadriceps and sprained left ankle, respectively. Nicolas Douchez Paris Saint-Germain Jersey . Ben Revere, Kubels replacement, had an RBI double to help Minnesota snap a four-game slide and collect just its third win in 13 games. Twins starter Anthony Swarzak (1-2) recorded his first win since July 26, 2009, allowing just two runs on seven hits over six frames. Jeff Francoeur drove in the only two runs for the Royals, who have lost nine of their last 12. Starter Sean OSullivan (2-5) was pounded for seven runs -- three earned -- on eight hits over just 2 2/3 innings to get the loss. Its the most frustating thing in the world for me right now. I feel like in the last two or three years, Ive tried to do so many things mechanically, said OSullivan. Change this. Change that. Do this. Do that. Its almost like, Man, where did I start? Right now, Im trying to figure some things out. The Twins capitalized on the Royals mistakes and had timely hitting in the third inning to blow the game open with six runs. Alexi Casilla and Justin Morneau started it with consecutive singles and Cuddyer ripped a double down the left field line to bring home Casilla for the first run of the barrage. Danny Valencia hit a hard grounder to the right of second baseman Mike Aviles, who bobbled the ball to keep all the runners safe while Morneau scored. The first out of the inning finally came when Cuddyer was caught stealing third base, but Delmon Young singled to put runners on first and second. After Revere struck out, Rene Rivera singled through the left side to plate Valencia. Matt Tolbert kept the inning going with an RBI single before Kansas City had another costly mishap. With Denard Span in the batters box, OSullivan threw a ball into the dirt, which allowed Rivera to race home and Tolbert move to third. Span then laced a line drive to left to push Tolbert across. Casilla, who led off the inning, ended the threat with a ground out. Thats huge. To be able to go out there and kind of just let it eat a little bit and hope for the best. That was fun tonight, Swarzak said of pitching when his club gave him a sizeable lead. When guys come up and give you a big lead like that and swung the bats well, it makes it a lot easier to pitch. Francoeur drove in his second RBI in the fifth to make it a 7-2 contest. Revere doubled in Young during the seventh to push it back to a six-run lead and Minnesotas bullpen closed the game out. Jose Mijares, Alex Burnett and Matt Capps each tossed a shutout inning to preserve the win. The two teams traded runs in the first inning to keep the game squared away. Span singled to leadoff the game, moved to second on a walk and scurried to third on Morneaus fly out. He then scored on Cuddyers fielders choice. During the bottom half of the inning, Francoeur ripped a double to score Eric Hosmer to tie it at one. GAME NOTES:OSullivan dropped to 1-2 in four career starts against the Twins...The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Royals against the Twins...Minnesota also called up infielder Luke Hughes to fill Thomes roster spot...Kansas City was 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.Marquinhos Paris Saint-Germain Jersey . - New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has long been a fan of trick plays. Blaise Matuidi Paris Saint-Germain Jersey .Chase Lang had a goal and an assist for the Hitmen (19-11-3) while Beck Malenstyn, Layne Bensmiller and Adam Tambellini added a goal apiece.Dillon Dube scored the lone goal for the Rockets (26-5-3), who had their five-game win streak halted.NEW YORK -- They lost often, 67 times in all for the Milwaukee Bucks. Sometimes they lost always, such as 26 straight times for the Philadelphia 76ers. Now the NBAs biggest losers have a chance for a huge win. Watch all the drama of the NBA Draft Lottery unfold on TSN and TSN GO live NOW. The draft lottery is tonight, a night some teams appeared to be aiming toward for months during a season that featured plenty of talking about tanking. The winner gets the No. 1 pick in next months draft, when an Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker might make this seasons misery worth it. Its a potential make-or-break night for some teams, which is why a program about the results of a random drawing ends up as the prime-time lead-in for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. "To me its part of the mystery and part of the enjoyment in seeing whos right, whos wrong," Commissioner Adam Silver said recently. "Will these perceived great players coming into the draft really be in a position to turn around teams? So its part of the fun." The Bucks and 76ers sure are enjoying it, and trying to get their fans in on the good times. Theres a viewing party in Milwaukee where all fans get a pingpong ball. The 76ers were giving away a trip to New York, where they were to be represented on stage by Hall of Famer Julius "Dr. J." Erving. Silver is aware of the tanking speculation and uneasy that fans might think NBA teams were willing to take their money without caring if they win the games. But he understands that teams sometimes need to rebuild, and that may mean going straight to the bottom if they think thats the quickest route to the top. "The jury is out on the strategy and I think that makes for good copy as well. Im intrigued," Silver said. "I read both sides of it in terms of, is that the right way to build a team, what impact does it have on culture, can you rebuild a team in two years, can you rebuild in three years, whats the track record of teams trying to do that," Silver added, "and I am mindful that in a leaague of 30 teams that were also selling competition on a nightly basis and I dont want to create a sense that we want to subject fans to subpar performances because dont worry, its going to be great three years from now. Zlatan Ibrahimovic Paris Saint-Germain Jersey. " The Bucks have a 25 per cent chance to win and give incoming new ownership a great welcoming gift. Philadelphia (19.9 per cent), Orlando (15.6) and Utah (10.4) have the next-best chances, with longtime powerhouses Boston and the Lakers behind them after rare poor seasons. But this was a season where for some teams, a job well done meant doing their jobs poorly. After a forgettable draft in 2013, this one is considered much more promising, good enough that some teams which knew they werent going to win decided they would be better off if they lost. Philadelphia owner Joshua Harris even called his teams season a "huge success" after its 19-63 record included a 26-game skid that matched the longest in NBA history. The Sixers may have topped the list, but they were hardly alone among suspected tankers this season. "I thought it was pretty crazy that teams were doing that. But theyre saying this is going to be one of the toughest draft classes since 2003," Indiana University star Noah Vonleh said. That class produced LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony, so if this draft really is that good, its hard to blame any teams for trying to get to the top of it. The fact that so many did has sparked new calls to change the lottery process so as to not invite tanking. Silver said it will be looked at over the summer, but as the lottery turns 30, there isnt a perfect idea for how to run it. "I think for us, weve got to make sure we understand whether theres an aberration here because of the perception of a particular draft class, whether indeed there is a better way of do it," Silver said, "because of course at the same time you want to properly align incentives, but the very purpose of the draft is to help the worst teams restock." wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '
