No offense past the first two batters dooms sweep potential
On this Memorial Day weekend in which people have been flocking to the cinema to see the final Mission Impossible installment, the Minnesota Twins lived up to that moniker by being unable to finish off the sweep of the Kansas City Royals.
The Twins got off to a great start in this one, with Ryan Jeffers leading off the game by doubling into the RF corner and then almost immediately being driven in by a single from the red-hot Ty France.
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The visiting Royals put together their first threat off Twins SP Bailey Ober in the third inning when a Bobby Witt Jr. double put runners on 2nd & 3rd with one out. But Carlos Correa speared a Vinnie Pasquantino liner up the middle & Willi Castro was in the right place at the right time to nab Salvador Perez’s scorcher to LF.
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In the middle innings, Ober & KC SP Kris Bubic matched easy goose eggs. Both moundsmen were putting the get in get-away day this holiday weekend.
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Still sitting on a shutout into the 7th, Ober was greeted by a leadoff Drew Waters double. For a moment it looked as if damage would be averted when nice defensive plays from France & Jonah Bride kept Waters glued to the second sack. But on an 0-2 offering, Freddy Fermin dumped a double into CF and tied the game 1-1.
Fortunately, Louis Varland would come in from the pen and squash any further foolishness.
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As has happened so many times these past three weeks, Twins pitching kept the team in the game and left fans wondering “who will be the hero this time?”.
Well, a couple of heroes emerged in the top of the 9th. After Waters singled and was replaced by Kansas City speedster Dairon Blanco, Jeffers immediately gunned down Dairon with a perfect missile to 2B. Then, Trevor Larnach sprawled out to make a diving catch to allow Cole Sands to escape with a perfect frame.
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Alas, no on-the-clock walk-off could be achieved in B9, so to bonus baseball we’d go.
Though the 30,000+ Target Field crowd was fired up by Jhoan Duran’s entrance, the righty allowed a single to Maikel Garcia that scored the free runner and gave KC a 2-1 lead.
MIN managed to put runners on 2nd & 3rd with two outs in B10, but Brooks Lee was unable to play the hero role two days in a row, grounding out to Witt to end this one.
Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images
Your Final: Kansas City Royals 2, Minnesota Twins 1
This MN loss plus a DET victory (CG SHO from Tarik Skubal) over CLE today puts the Twins 4.0 GB the AL Central-leading Tigers.
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Up next: 3 games (M-W) at Tampa’s new/hopefully-temporary home—Steinbrenner Field.
Studs
- Ober: 6.2 IP, 1 ER
- The entire Varland-Sands-Duran bullpen (only run scored was of the ghost variety)
- France: Drove in first run; some nice defensive plays
Duds
- Carson McCusker: Nothing at the plate; tentative in the field
- The entire offense outside of Jeffers & France
Comment of the Game
- norff iterating the common theme of bad Twins ABs today