Royals
James Shields has been pitching pretty well this season (by Twins starting pitching standards he has pitched EXCELLENTLY). His last start was against the Twins in Minnesota, and he similarly did well, giving up two earned runs on five hits over 6 innings pitched.
Historically, the Twins have had some luck against Shields. Justin Morneau is 13-for-35 (.371 BA) with three home runs in his career against Shields. Joe Mauer is 12-for-34 (.353 BA) with (shocker) 0 home runs. After that things drop off a little, notably with Ryan Doumit who is 1-for-11 (.091 BA).
Morneau hit a home run off shields last week--can he do it again tonight? Let's hope so.
Twins
Tonight the Twins are sending rookie Andrew Albers to the mound, and SB Nation has no information widgets about him so I apologize for that. Albers has never pitched in the majors before, so it's a pretty exciting day for him. Albers has made 22 starts in AAA this year, in which he went 11-5 with a 2.86 ERA.
What else do we know about Albers? He's 27 years old. He's left handed. He's Canadian (the first major league player from Saskatchewan since 1991! Woot!). He was originally drafted by the Padres in 2008, but subsequently released when his arm blew up (he then had Tommy John's surgery). He also drove 40 hours to Fort Myers, Florida in 2011 to try-out for the Twins after several other teams passed on him in Arizona.
Albers will face the red-hot Royals tonight. Good luck!