Game 20 vs. Minnesota

Our guys have been on a real losing streak lately. We blew all three games of a weekend series in Chicago, and then we lost the series opener against the Twins yesterday. Dropping some contests against the cellar-dwelling White Sox wasn’t the end of the world, especially if Ned needed the leeway to tinker with the lineup. But we need to beat Minnesota. We shave two games off our magic number every time we do.

And tonight we did. Edinson Volquez got off to a bit of a shaky start, but a double play rescued him in the top of the first. Then in the bottom of the inning we went to work, scoring the first four guys who came up against Kyle Gibson. Other than a brief Minnesota rally in the third, that was it for scoring.

We did get to see some impressive fielding, however. Alex Rios made an impressive snow cone catch to keep the lead batter off base in the top of the eighth. And in the top of the ninth Alcides Escobar made his nightly bid for the Web Gems segment on SportsCenter by twisting and firing from his knees to throw Joe Mauer out by a hair at first. Appeal overruled.

TWINS (2) AT ROYALS (4)

TWINS                AB  R  H BI  ROYALS               AB  R  H BI
Aaron Hicks           4  0  2  0  Ben Zobrist           4  1  1  0  
Brian Dozier          3  1  1  1  Alex Gordon           4  1  3  0  
Joe Mauer             4  0  2  1  Lorenzo Cain          3  1  0  0  
Trevor Plouffe        4  0  0  0  Eric Hosmer           4  1  1  3  
Eddie Rosario         4  0  0  0  Kendrys Morales       3  0  1  1  
Torii Hunter          3  0  0  0  Mike Moustakas        2  0  0  0  
Eduardo Escobar       3  0  0  0  Salvador Perez        3  0  0  0  
Chris Herrmann        2  0  0  0  Alex Rios             3  0  0  0  
 Ervin Santana        1  0  0  0  Alcides Escobar       3  0  0  0  
Byron Buxton          3  1  1  0                                    
TOTALS               31  2  6  2  TOTALS               29  4  6  4

TWINS                         002 000 000 -- 2  
ROYALS                        400 000 00x -- 4  

LOB--TWINS 3, ROYALS 3. 2B--Joe Mauer, Kendrys Morales, Alex
Gordon, Eric Hosmer. HBP--Brian Dozier. SB--Byron Buxton.

 TWINS                           IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR
Kyle Gibson                    8.00    6    4    4    2    4    0
 ROYALS                     
Edinson Volquez                7.00    6    2    2    0    3    0
Wade Davis                     1.00    0    0    0    0    1    0
Greg Holland                   1.00    0    0    0    0    0    0

SO--Joe Mauer, Brian Dozier, Chris Herrmann, Byron Buxton,
Alex Rios, Ben Zobrist, Alcides Escobar, Eric Hosmer.
BB--Lorenzo Cain, Mike Moustakas.