All the hope and joy created by a 9-2 home stand quickly disappeared Friday after the Twins limped out of the second-half gates and lost to the lowly Kansas City Royals, 6-5.
The Twins scored four runs late, including three runs in the top of the ninth, but the rally fell short after Max Kepler flied out to end the game. The Twins really need to win Saturday and Sunday to keep momentum alive before they head to Toronto, then Boston, the best team in baseball.
Despite scoring five runs on 10 hits, the Twins couldn’t score runs when they needed to. The team was 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. Starter Kyle Gibson didn’t pitch that poorly — he had five strikeouts in five-plus innings — but he also threw 103 pitches, walked two batters and gave up a home run. Still, he held the Royals to four runs before the bullpen coughed up two more.
Lance Lynn gets the ball Saturday.
Extra innings…
-Royals’ starter Danny Duffy, who picked up the win Friday, is hard on the Twins. Prior to Friday night’s game he was 5-1 with a 2.27 ERA, according to Baseball-Reference.com. I guess he’s now 6-1.
-The Cleveland Indians won Friday night so now the Twins are 8.5 games back of the Tribe.