The Kansas City Royals visit the Twins for a 3-game series.
It’s Game #44 for the Minnesota Twins as they begin a 3-game series at home against the reigning World Champs with Ricky Nolasco starting for the Twins and Ian Kennedy starting for the Royals.
Ricky Nolasco for the Twins against Ian Kennedy for the Royals
Lineups from MLB.com:
Picture from after the game so stats are current.
The few ups and many downs of the 2016 Minnesota Twins season continued last night and the downs got going right away in the first inning….again. Royals SS Alcides Escobar doubled to left field to lead off the game. CF Lorenzo Cain then doubled him in to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Ricky Nolasco held the damage to only the one run.
Most fans are already down as the Twins already trail in the game. Joe Mauer tried to pick up their moods by hitting his 3rd HR of the season. He hit the first pitch he saw just over the left field wall to tie the game at 1. Then Sano lined out sharply to center field. Plouffe singled and advanced to 2nd on an Alcides Escobar throwing error. Byung Ho Park was hit in the head when Ian Kennedy lost control of a curveball. It clearly wasn’t intentional. Then Robbie Grossman singled on a line drive to right field scoring Plouffe, who ran through the stop sign at 3rd base. Luckily the throw was offline so the Twins got a break and now lead the game 2-1. The Twins got a break. Were things going the right way for the Twins for a change?
Nope. Salvador Perez doubled to lead off the 2nd inning followed by a Paulo Orlando single moving Perez to 3rd. Perez only got to 3rd because the ball was smoked just by Eduardo Escobar so he had to retreat back to 2nd so he wouldn’t be doubled off in case of a line out. A sacrifice fly from Omar Infante would score Perez to tie the game again at 2. Nolasco once again held the damage to one run, striking out the last two batters.
Unfortunately, Ricky Nolasco wouldn’t make it through the 3rd inning. He wasn’t fooling anyone, wasn’t sharp and threw 71 pitches (42 strikes) in only 2.2 innings. His 3rd inning went single, line out, single, walk, coaching visit from Neil Allen, RBI single, sacrifice fly, walk, 2-run single, pitching change for a 6-2 deficit when he was replaced by Trevor May. A 41-minute rain delay would see both teams stay with the pitchers that were in the game before the rain and neither of them responded well.
May would start the 4th by allowing a leadoff double. He’d strikeout the next two batters but would allow a single to Morales that would score the 7th Royals run. Perez would then single on a short fly ball that was called an out on the field but it would be overturned because it was clearly trapped by a diving Danny Santana. The overturned call would result in the 8th Royals run.
Ian Kennedy would get pulled from the game during the 4th inning after a Suzuki line out to left field. He had never pitched after a long delay before and he wasn’t sharp afterwards so that got him pulled. Apparently that ‘Zuki liner was enough for Royals manager Ned Yost to say that’s enough.
The Twins would start the 5th, 6th and 8th innings well, getting two on with no outs only to get 1 or no runs out of it due to 3 double plays. They’d go 3-for-12 w/RISP and leave 9 on base.
In the end, Salvador Perez would go 5-for-5 and help the Royals hand the Twins their 33rd loss of the season by a score of 10-4.
The Good: The Twins had 12 hits. Joe Mauer and Trevor Plouffe went 3-for-5. Is this the start of them getting it going with the bat? Eduardo Escobar was 2-for-4 in his 1st game back from the DL. Grossman continues to hit. The Twins need to start scoring more though.
Taylor Rogers(2IP), Brandon Kinzler(1IP) and Fernando Abad(1IP) pitched 4 scoreless innings allowing only 2 hits while striking out 4.
The Bad: Ricky Nolasco isn’t sharp after starting the season well. In April, he was getting strikeouts and not allowing a lot of hits. In April, he allowed .214/.236/.363 (AVG/OBP/SLG). In May, it’s a very different story at .346/.390/.600. He’s still getting strikeouts but he’s allowing more hits and those hits are usually hit very hard. Is it a focus thing? Is he hurt again? Is it the losing?
The Twins had to use Kevin Jepsen to finish a game they were losing 8-4. He’d allow 3 hits and 2 runs, all after 2 outs. Trevor May is struggling and keeps relying on his fastball, trying to throw it as hard as he can. Mix in more of that curveball and see if that works. The old bread & butter fastball isn’t going to fool them if they know it’s coming more often than not.
Every relief pitcher has pitched the last two days. That’s not good. This bullpen has been overworked and needs someone to step up and go at least 6 innings and preferably more.
Up Next: Can Ervin Santana continue pitching well and pitching well against the Royals? He looked good in KC in April. The Twins need a good start from someone. Be a stopper, Erv! He’ll face Edinson Volquez tonight at 7:10pm!
