Royals bats go quiet in 3-0 loss to Twins in series finale

Eric Hosmer clutched his bat in left hand as he stood halfway up the first-base line. He glanced at the nearest umpire, who had ruled his innocuous fifth-inning grounder a fair ball. He glanced at Mike Pelfrey, the wobbling Twins starter who had still bested him with the bases loaded. At last he turned toward his dugout, his hand wrapped around the barrel, the portion of his bat with which he could not connect.

When Hosmer grounded out in the fifth inning of Wednesday’s 3-0 loss to Minnesota, the Royals wasted their finest scoring opportunity of the evening. Hosmer swung at a belt-high fastball but thumped it into the grass. He let Pelfrey off the hook.

Pelfrey is a 6-7 right-hander who only joined the Twins rotation after Ervin Santana’s suspension for steroid usage. He lacks deception or high-end velocity. Groundballs and quick at-bats are his aim. Kansas City (11-4) provided with him both on Wednesday. The club managed six hits, but five were singles. They stranded eight runners.

When Hosmer flicked a triple past a diving Torii Hunter in right, the chilled masses at Kauffman Stadium jumped to their feet. There were two outs in the eighth. Down three, the Royals still had life. When Kendrys Morales flied out to the warning track in left field, thousands turned toward the turnstiles.

So a clamorous homestand ended in anti-climax. The Royals went 4-2 and captured both series against the Athletics and the Twins. But on Tuesday there were no ejections, no comebacks and scant reason for emotion. Pelfrey hit a pair of batters, but Kansas City did not cry foul or seek retribution. They merely extended their string of outs until he finished with seven scoreless frames.

Jeremy Guthrie lasted five innings but walked a tightrope for most of them. He matched a career-high with six walks. After a three-run outburst in the first, Guthrie kept the Twins off the board. But his shakiness underscored the starting rotation’s lackluster beginning to the season.

Save for Edinson Volquez, the starters have yet to excel. As a group, their ERA is 4.67. The story of Yordano Ventura’s season focuses on cramps and ejections. Danny Duffy has a 5.51 ERA. Jason Vargas has surrendered 10 runs in his last two outings, both against these Twins.

In his last outing, Guthrie wobbled beneath the weight of three Oakland home runs. On Wednesday, the Twins attacked him with lasers and paper cuts. He gave up back-to-back, RBI singles to Brian Dozier and Kennys Vargas in the first. After issuing a walk to load the bases, Guthrie brushed Oswaldo Arcia to plate another Minnesota runner.

The Twins do not flaunt intimidating firepower. Alcides Escobar fielded a groundball from catcher Kurt Suzuki and Christian Colon turned a double play to hold the deficit at three. The score remained the same even after Minnesota loaded the bases again in the second.

With two outs, Hunter handed the Royals a gift. He gambled when he tried to steal home. It was a worthy trick – Guthrie was pitching from the windup and his head was down. But Guthrie still tossed the ball across the plate well ahead of Hunter’s arrival. The Royals accepted the third out to wriggle free.

Twins 3, Royals 0

This story was originally published April 22, 2015 at 10:03 PM with the headline "Royals bats go quiet in 3-0 loss to Twins in series finale."