Royals not able to overcome five-run seventh-inning by the Twins
The young and inexperienced Royals bullpen simply didn’t have the wherewithal to overcome adversity and stop the bleeding quickly enough on the road against the division-leading Minnesota Twins on Friday night.
Royals left-handed reliever Richard Lovelady certainly appeared to strikeout Max Kepler for the first out of the seventh inning in a tie game.
A glance at the replay confirmed it, though the naked eye gave a perfectly-definitive view. The problem? Home-plate umpire and crew chief Joe West didn’t call it a strike, and Kepler took his base on a head-scratching walk.
That’s where the unraveling started on the way to the Royals’ 11-9 loss in the opening game of the three-game weekend series in front of an announced 32,431 at Target Field.
“I think it changes it a lot, honestly,” Lovelady said of the call on Kepler. “I thought I made a pretty good pitch. Obviously, I’m not the person calling balls and strikes. I can’t call it a strike, but I thought it was a pretty good pitch, especially 3-2. Locked him up. Unfortunately, it didn’t go my way.”
Jorge Polanco followed Kepler’s walk with a double that bounced inside the third base bag and off the wall in foul territory in left field. Polanco’s double put runners on second and third with no outs in a tie game, 6-6, in the seventh inning.
That also forced Lovelady (0-1) to watch the rest of the inning unfold from the dugout. Right-hander Kyle Zimmer came in for the Royals (40-71) and gave up a two-run double to Nelson Cruz that smacked high off the center-field wall. That was followed by an Eddie Rosario single and a Miguel Sano RBI single.
“Lovelady did a great job. He really did,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He came in and got us through an inning and 1/3. We liked the lefty matchups with Kepler and Polanco. It ended up, I think and the replay will probably show me out, Lovelady had Kepler struck out and didn’t get the call. It was a jam shot on Polanco.”
Zimmer gave way to left-hander Tim Hill with runners on the corners, no outs and the Twins (67-42) up 9-6. When the dust settled on the seventh inning, the Twins had scored five runs and took their biggest lead of the night, 11-6, in what had been a back-and-forth affair that featured three lead changes in the first five innings.
“(Lovelady) pitched great. And then Zimmer came in and struggled to command his pitches. It got away from us, but Tim Hill came in and McCarthy did a nice job, and we just kept battling back. It just was not quite enough.”
The Royals scored three runs in the eighth against Twins trade deadline acquisition Sam Dyson, with the help of a Bubba Starling infield single, a throwing error and a Cam Gallagher two-out RBI single to get back within striking distance.
However, the five-run cushion the Twins built in the seventh had provided enough leeway. Twins reliever Sergio Romo pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief to close the door. Romo retired the heart of the Royals lineup, Hunter Dozier, Jorge Soler and Cheslor Cuthbert, in order in the ninth.
Dozier’s bat served as a thorn in the side of Twins pitching as he collected the first multi-home-run game of his career with solo shots in the fourth and fifth innings. Dozier now has 18 home runs this season.
Meanwhile, Gallagher also lifted a home run out of the ballpark, while Whit Merrifield, Soler and Cuthbert collected three hits apiece.
Royals starting pitcher Glenn Sparkman allowed six runs on six hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings in a no-decision. All three of the batters Sparkman walked came around to score. He also struck out four.
The Royals will try to bounce back behind left-hander Danny Duffy (5-5, 4.42) on Saturday night. Right-hander Kyle Gibson (10-4, 4.10) is scheduled to start for the Twins.
Twins 11, Royals 9
Kansas City | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | Avg. |
Merrifield rf-2b | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .303 |
Gordon lf | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .278 |
Dozier 3b-rf | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .283 |
Soler dh | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .250 |
Cuthbert 1b-3b | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .296 |
Starling cf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .279 |
Arteaga ss | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .197 |
a-O’Hearn ph-1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .177 |
Lopez 2b-ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .220 |
Gallagher c | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .244 |
Totals | 40 | 9 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 7 |
Minnesota | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | Avg. |
Kepler cf | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .268 |
Polanco ss | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .300 |
Cruz dh | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | .289 |
Rosario lf | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .283 |
Sano 3b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .247 |
Arraez 2b | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .342 |
Gonzalez rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .248 |
Castro c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .251 |
Adrianza 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .269 |
Totals | 34 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 5 | 6 |
Kansas City | 100 | 221 | 030 | — | 9 | 15 | 0 |
Minnesota | 220 | 020 | 50x | — | 11 | 11 | 2 |
a-struck out for Arteaga in the 8th.
E—Polanco (11), Sano (13). LOB—Kansas City 5, Minnesota 5. 2B—Merrifield (30), Soler (23), Cuthbert (11), Arteaga (2), Kepler 2 (27), Polanco (30), Cruz 2 (19). HR—Dozier (17), off Perez; Gallagher (3), off Perez; Dozier (18), off Perez; Cruz (27), off Sparkman. RBIs—Dozier 2 (59), Soler (74), Starling (4), Arteaga (4), Gallagher 2 (12), Kepler (75), Cruz 5 (67), Rosario (72), Sano (39), Arraez (9), Castro (26), Adrianza (18). SB—Merrifield (16). CS—Arteaga (1). SF—Adrianza. S—Starling.
Runners left in scoring position—Kansas City 3 (Gordon, Dozier, Lopez); Minnesota 2 (Polanco, Arraez). RISP—Kansas City 5 for 15; Minnesota 7 for 14.
Runners moved up—Dozier, Lopez, Polanco, Gonzalez 2, Arraez. LIDP—Gordon.
DP—Minnesota 1 (Sano, Adrianza).
Kansas City | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA |
Sparkman | 4 2/3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 82 | 5.58 |
Lovelady, L, 0-1 | 11/3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 5.06 |
Zimmer | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 7.50 |
Hill | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 3.38 |
McCarthy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 4.81 |
Minnesota | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | NP | ERA |
Perez | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 68 | 4.58 |
Thorpe, BS, 1-1 | 1 2/3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 3.18 |
May, W, 4-3 | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3.96 |
Dyson | 2/3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 24 | 3.48 |
Romo, S, 18-19 | 1 1/3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 25 | 3.29 |
Lovelady pitched to 2 batters in the 7th.
Zimmer pitched to 3 batters in the 7th.
Inherited runners-scored—Lovelady 2-0, Zimmer 2-2, Hill 2-2, May 1-0, Romo 1-0. WP—Sparkman.
Umpires—Home, Joe West; First, Andy Fletcher; Second, Jansen Visconti; Third, Will Little.
T—3:14. A—32,431 (38,649).
This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 10:37 PM.
