Fast Reaction: Royals 3, Twins 1

Kevin Correia was a magician again this afternoon. Once more he induced double-digit ground outs, and after seven strong innings he actually stood as the better between himself and Royals starter Ervin Santana. But he came on for the bottom of the eighth, couldn't hit his spots, and by the time Gardenhire had someone up in the bullpen it was too late. Jared Burton couldn't stem the bleeding and the Royals scored three; the second run was allowed by Burton but was charged to Correia.

At the plate the Twins were just as mystified by Santana as Kansas City had been by Correia for most of the game. Joe Mauer had a pair of singles (although having one come in the fifth with two on and two out would have been better), and Chris Parmelee notched a pair of hits and a one-out walk in the ninth.

ROLL CALL!

We have 11 in our Top Ten today, due to a tie!

1. kenzertz (62)
2. spanspanspan (58)
3. BCTwins (52)
4. Purpledork (52)
5. myja (51)
6. Spinyourhead (43)
7. hawkeyeforever (34)
8. rubberbiscuit (34)
9. carlpavanosmoustache (33)
10. twinsgirl197 (33)
11. ColossusOfRhode (33)

Bullet Point Highlights

• It's never good that the Twins lose the first game of a series, but they've already done it in the first two series this season. And both of those turned out pretty good.
• While it's always easy and tempting to place blame when things go down the crapper, I try to be judicious about it because it's sometimes hard to lay blame (or praise for that matter) at the feet of just one individual. In this case, however, I do give Gardy a good portion of the blame for not having a quicker trigger on Correia. It was a 1-0 lead, and as great as Kevin had been through seven innings you need to be ready to get him the hell out of there at the first sign of trouble.
• Jared Burton didn't look like his normal self today.
• Aaron Hicks struck out two more times again today. It's been a rough start for our new center fielder and leadoff man.
• When Jarrod Dyson was caught stealing in the eighth inning (as seen in the pic above), it appeared as though Pedro Florimon (and his crotch) kept Dyson (and his RUBBER spikes...so it's okay) from getting to the bag. That wasn't the case. The out call was probably out of sympathy for Florimon's boys.

Win Expectancy Graph