Kansas City Royals leave tying run on for 2nd straight day, drop series finale to Twins
Star Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez didn’t get the chance to crush the Minnesota Twins’ hopes and elate the home crowd with a walk-off homer or game-tying hit.
Perez, who hit four home runs in a two-game span last week, already has two-walk off hits hits season (one home run), as well as a walk-off pick-off from behind the plate. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli wasn’t about to roll the dice with the tying run at second base.
Instead, the Twins walked Perez and put the game’s outcome on the shoulders of third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez, who has a grand total of 151 at-bats in the majors.
Twins bullpen stalwart Taylor Rogers got Gutierrez to hit a ground ball to shortstop, and the subsequent forceout at second base dealt the Royals a 2-1 loss to the Twins in front of an announced 14,046, wrapping up a six-game home stand at Kauffman Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The Royals (29-28) were held to minimal offense throughout the day (six hits). For the second day in a row, they lost by a run and finished the game with a runner in scoring position.
“We know we’re going to be in tight games,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We’re not surprised. We’ve been able to come through in those situations as much as anybody in the game. Just a fluke yesterday. It’s a very low percentage of line drives in those situations, but that one hurt.
“Today we had the right part of the order up. We wanted to see that part of the order have a chance to make a difference in that game. That’s worked out well for us in the past. They’ve got their best out there and it’s head-to-head and see who comes out on top. We just fell a little short.”
The Royals lost the last two games of the series after having won the first two. They’ll next begin a seven-game West Coast road trip.
Twins 6-foot-9 right-hander Bailey Ober, who made his second career major-league start, held the Royals to one run over four innings. He allowed five hits and struck out four. The biggest moment of his outing came courtesy of a game-changing triple play in the third inning.
The Royals had the makings of a big inning in the third after singles by Jarrod Dyson and Cam Gallagher put two men on with no outs. Nicky Lopez’s bunt popped up to first base, and it was caught with both runners already halfway to the next base.
Twins first baseman Miguel Sano caught the ball for the first out and then threw to second, where shortstop Andrelton Simmons stepped on the bag to double off Dyson for the second out. Simmons then gave chase for a few steps as Gallagher retreated to first base.
Simmons threw to second baseman Nick Gordon, who had rotated to cover first, for the third out.
“I mean, I’ve put that down this whole season,” Lopez said. “I’ve been putting down bunts. This one, pitcher has a little bit of ride to his fastball and I just got a little bit underneath it and popped it up. I think Dys and Cam must have thought that it was going to, maybe, drop.”
While the Royals came away empty from that sequence, they tied the game in the fourth after Whit Merrifield tripled and scored on Andrew Benintendi’s RBI single.
Singer nearly escaped the fifth inning unscathed despite facing bases loaded and no outs. He struck out back-to-back batters before he hit Trevor Larnach with a pitch to force in the go-ahead run.
“I knew I had to make some really good pitches, and I thought I did,” Singer said. “I got two big strikeouts there. I wanted to get that behind Larnach. Obviously, I yanked it a little too much and got him on the foot there. I limited the damage. I mean no outs, bases loaded. I was able to escape with one.”
The Twins grabbed a 2-1 lead on that bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, and the score remained that way to the finish.
Twins pitchers retired 13 consecutive batters from the end of the fourth inning until Merrifield doubled to left field to start the ninth. Then Carlos Santana struck out, and Benintendi hit a fly ball caught in left field. Both Santana and Benintendi have had walk-off or go-ahead hits late in games this season.
With two outs in the ninth, the Twins made the wise decision and walked Perez to pitch to Gutierrez.
“It definitely stings to drop these two, knowing that we should be winning these ballgames if it’s right there,” Lopez said. “… Every win counts up here. But it is encouraging knowing that we don’t quit. We fight until the end. It says a lot about our clubhouse, says a lot about our team. We’re going to continue to do so.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2021 at 4:59 PM.
