Royals’ power and bullpen help beat Twins and avoid another double-digit losing streak
A change of scenery served the Royals well.
After nine straight losses on the road, the Royals returned to Kauffman Stadium and beat the Minnesota Twins 7-4 on Friday before a season-best crowd of 31,824.
The home run trend that started in Boston continued Friday with blasts by Salvador Perez and Hanser Alberto, giving the Royals nine in the their last five games.
They pieced together a pitching conga line of Brady Singer, Richard Lovelady, Jake Brentz, Kyle Zimmer, Greg Holland and Scott Barlow and got the job done.
It was all enough to erase the bad taste of the past of the losing skid that had dropped the Royals into last place in the AL Central, a position they traded with the Twins with Friday’s outcome.
Alberto’s third-inning home run was the difference. He came to the Royals this year as a left-handed pitcher’s nightmare — he entered this season with baseball’s best average against lefites since 2019 (.394) — but he hadn’t lived up to the reputation with a .230 average this season.
The fortune turned against Twins stater J.A. Happ.
Alberto slashed a double in the Royals’ three-run second inning, and his two-run homer into the left-field bullpen an inning later gave the Royals a 5-3 lead. It was Alberto’s first home run as a Royal, and it scored Perez, who had singled with two outs ahead of him.
Perez, named to the Home Run Derby lineup at the All-Star game later this month, took the short route to his 20th home run. Leading off the second, he ran the count to 3-2 before knocking Happ’s fastball on the outside corner into the right-field seats.
Not the seats above the bullpen, but the ones around the foul pole. The homer was measured at 369 feet. No matter, it started a rally. Hanser followed with a double, Hunter Dozier singled and Michael A. Taylor doubled to make it 3-3.
Singer lasted three innings, with the Twins striking for three in the first, but he struck out Max Kepler with the bases loaded to end the third. The bullpen allowed one run over six innings and Lovelady recorded his first career victory.
The Royals reached the halfway point of the season at 34-47 but avoided a 10th straight loss which would have given them two double-digit losing streaks this year. They dropped 11 in a row from May 2-13.
This story was originally published July 2, 2021 at 10:44 PM.