Pablo Lopez to make Minnesota Twins debut vs. Royals in season opener

All games on BSN and 830-AM

Thursday, 3:10 p.m.: RHP Pablo López (10-10, 3.75 ERA last year) vs. RHP Zack Greinke (4-9, 3.68)

Saturday, 3:10 p.m.: RHP Sonny Gray (8-5, 3.08 ERA) vs. RHP Jordan Lyles (12-11, 4.42)

Sunday, 1:10 p.m.: RHP Joe Ryan (13-8, 3.55 ERA) vs. RHP Brad Keller (6-14, 4..09)

López will make his American League debut after five seasons with the Miami Marlins. The 27-year old righthander was 28-31 with a 3.94 ERA with the Marlins. Last season he struck out 174 in a career-high 180 innings. ... OF Michael A. Taylor spent the past two seasons with the Royals. He batted .254 in 124 games last year. ... The Twins were 78-84 last season — going 32-49 on the road. ... The Twins were 12-7 against the Royals in 2022, going 8-2 against the Royals at Target Field and 4-5 in Kansas City. The Royals swept a three-game series from the Twins in late September in Kansas City.

With two weeks to go in the 2022 season, the Royals fired president of baseball operations Dayton Moore and promoted executive vice president and general manager J.J. Picollo. ... Following the 65-97 season — the Royals' sixth consecutive losing season — manager Mike Matheny was fired and Matt Quatraro was named as his replacement. Quatraro, who spent the past four seasons as the Tampa Bay Rays bench coach, is making his MLB managing debut. ... The Royals were 19-13-1 in spring training games — the most victories among the 30 MLB teams. ... The Royals are the eighth MLB team for Lyles, who is in his 13th big-league season. He was with Baltimore last season.