Dillon Gee falters, Royals miss chance for sweep in 7-5 loss to Twins

It was the bottom of the fifth inning Wednesday afternoon, the final game of a six-game road trip, and a wobbly starting pitcher and a taxed bullpen were conspiring against Ned Yost.

As the Royals manager watched from his seat inside the third-base dugout, starting pitcher Dillon Gee worked against Minnesota Twins right fielder Miguel Sano. The Royals clung to a one-run lead. The situation offered a vexing dilemma.

Gee had already allowed two homers and three earned runs in three innings. Minnesota’s Joe Mauer had opened the inning with a line-drive single to left field. Yet Yost rode with Gee, a move based on future concerns and a lack of alternatives, a decision that would ultimately end in a 7-5 loss in the final game of a three-game series in Minnesota.

On Monday, Royals starter Ian Kennedy was limited to just 3  1/3 innings after a 41-minute rain delay in a 10-4 victory. On Tuesday, Yost used another three relievers after starter Edinson Volquez lasted 6  2/3 innings. For the last two weeks, as Gee and left-hander Danny Duffy transitioned to the rotation, the Kansas City bullpen has been ridden until near exhaustion. After 45 games, it ranked third among American League bullpens with 158  1/3 innings pitched. The Royals’ next day off is June 9.

“There’s circumstances here,” Yost would say afterward. “Trying to build Danny up is going to put a bit of a drain on the pen. The rain here the other day puts a drain on the pen. But you just deal with those things.”

On Wednesday, Yost dealt by trying to squeeze an extra inning or two out of Gee. Moments later, Sano crushed a 1-0 cutter into the left-field upper deck at Target Field, turning a 5-4 lead into a 6-5 deficit.

“Definitely a pitch I’d like to have back,” Gee said. “The pitches I didn’t execute, they did a lot of damage too.”

By the end, Gee had allowed six runs (five earned) and nine hits in four-plus innings. The performance soured a productive road trip to Chicago and Minnesota.

The Royals, 24-22, won four games in six days, clinching a fourth-straight series victory Tuesday night. They could not complete a sweep against the worst team in baseball, losing to the Twins for the first time in six contests this season.

On late Wednesday afternoon, the Royals boarded a flight home to Kansas City. They sat just two games behind first-place Chicago, 27-21, who lost to Cleveland, 25-20, on Wednesday. The Royals and White Sox will open a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium Thursday night.

“It was a great road trip,” Yost said. “You look at it: Our offense is swinging the bats really, really well.”

In some ways, though, Wednesday felt like a victory that slipped away. The Royals led 5-3 after ambushing Twins starter Tyler Duffey for five runs in the fourth inning. The offense scored 22 runs during the three-game series, despite playing without Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas. Whit Merrifield piled up three two-hit games in the series. Eric Hosmer had a two-run double, his ninth of the season, that keyed the attack in the fourth. And yet, the Twins managed to snap an eight-game losing streak against the Royals at Target Field.

“I didn’t make very good pitches today,” Gee said. “I battled with command. I’d make some good pitches, strike some guys out, then I’d make some bad ones.”

Gee was making his third start since joining the Royals’ starting rotation May 14. In his previous two outings, he had yielded four earned runs while striking out 10 in 10  1/3 innings. He had made a case for a more permanent role in the rotation — at least for a while.

On Wednesday, he was undone by the home run, allowing three blasts in four-plus innings.

Twins leadoff man Eduardo Nunez jumped on a 1-0 fastball in the bottom of the first, drilling the pitch 403 feet to left-center field. Moments later, Brian Dozier clobbered a curveball into the upper deck in left field. The sequence stunned Gee, who left both pitches up in the zone.

“It definitely (stinks),” he said. “You know you put your team behind the eight-ball early.”

The Twins tacked on a third run — a gift, of sorts — in the bottom of the second. Shortstop Eduardo Escobar opened the inning by lofting a short fly into shallow right. Paulo Orlando paused for a second, breaking late on the ball, and second baseman Omar Infante threw his hands into the air, appearing to call for the ball. But Orlando kept charging and tried to call Infante off. At the last moment, both players pulled up, allowing the ball to fall to the grass.

Infante was charged with an error on the play. Orlando shouldered some of the blame.

“I called it,” Orlando said. “But it (was) too late for him to get out of the way.”

Gee compounded the error with a wild pickoff throw to first, sending Escobar to third. The run scored on a single from center fielder Danny Santana.

After the Royals pieced together their five-run inning in the top of the fourth, the Twins nicked Gee for a fourth run with two outs in the bottom half of the inning. The run trimmed the Kansas City lead to 5-4 and set up a climactic battle with Sano in the fifth.

Sano bested Gee. A run of solid starting pitching was over. The Royals squandered an opportunity for a sweep entering another crucial series against the White Sox at Kauffman Stadium.

“I think our pitching was good this road trip,” Yost said. “…We had a hiccup today.”

Twins 7, Royals 5

a-doubled for Butera in the 9th.

E: Gee (2), Infante (3). LOB: Kansas City 6, Minnesota 6. 2B: Hosmer (9), Perez (11), Dyson (5), Nunez (9). 3B: Infante (1). HR: Nunez (4), off Gee; Dozier (5), off Gee; Sano (8), off Gee. RBIs: Hosmer 2 (23), Perez (25), Infante (10), Nunez 2 (19), Dozier (15), Sano 2 (21), Park (16), Santana (10). CS: E.Escobar (2).

Runners left in scoring position: Kansas City 2 (Merrifield, Cain); Minnesota 3 (Dozier, Mauer, E.Escobar). RISP: Kansas City 3 for 8; Minnesota 2 for 7.

Runners moved up: A.Escobar. GIDP: Cain, Orlando, Park.

DP: Kansas City 1 (Cuthbert, Infante, Hosmer); Minnesota 2 (E.Escobar, Park), (E.Escobar, Dozier, Park).

Gee pitched to 2 batters in the 5th.

Hold: May (3), Rogers (1). Inherited runners-scored: May 2-0. HBP: Moylan (Sano). WP: Duffey.

Umpires: Home, Jeff Kellogg; First, John Tumpane; Second, Alan Porter; Third, Mark Carlson.

Time: 2:48. Att: 27,233.

This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Dillon Gee falters, Royals miss chance for sweep in 7-5 loss to Twins."