The Twins took two of three games from the division-leading Kansas City Royals, and they did it in smash-mouth style, scoring nine runs in Game 1 and 13 runs on Sunday.
It was the first series win for the Twins since they took two of three games from the Detroit Tigers in early April.
The Twins scored in bunches on Sunday. They scored seven runs in the third inning, three in the sixth and three more in the eighth. And they did that on 14 hits, including four doubles, three home runs and a triple.
Jose Berrios improved to 3-2 after he struck out nine over six innings with four runs allowed, most of which came on one swing of the bat after he served up a three-run home run. The bullpen was spotless the rest of the way.
The Twins now face the Texas Rangers for four games. Kenta Maeda gets the ball on Monday. Old friend, Kyle Gibson, takes the mound for the Rangers on Tuesday.
Extra innings…
-Rookie Alex Kirilloff had a huge series against the Royals, hitting four home runs — the first four home runs of his career.
-Andrelton Simmons had a full day as well on Sunday. He committed a throwing error, he completed a slick-looking double play and he hit a home run.
-It wasn’t a sweep, of course. The Twins were blown out on Saturday, 11-3, and they may have a problem with starter Matt Shoemaker, who again did not pitch well. Shoe allowed nine runs (eight earned) on eight hits over three-plus innings, or 68 pitches. That’s far from getting the job done. He’s now 1-3 with a 7.83 ERA.
-And then there was this…
Alex Kirilloff now has 10 RBIs this season, the most ever by a #MNTwins player through his first 11 career games.
— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) May 2, 2021
Wow. Alex leads a pretty distinguished group (Killebrew, Oliva, Carew and Puckett come to mind) with that statistic.