Gibson, Twins Throttle Royals 10-1

Minnesota desperately needed a decent start on Friday night, and Kyle Gibson provided it, going 6 1/3 competent innings in a 9-1 rout of the Royals.

Gibson, like the rest of the rotation, fell behind early, but that's where the similarity ends.  An asterisk can be placed on the one run he allowed, as Pedro Florimon kicked what looked like a double play ball that would have ended the first inning with no damage done.  After that, Gibson's sinker induced grounder upon grounder, and the next thing you know it's the 7th inning and the Twins are up by six runs.  Gibson finished at exactly 100 pitches with 3 Ks and 4 BBs, running his record to 2-0.  Not Johan in his prime, but it'll do.  Jesus, it'll do.

A Chris Colabello single and Jason Kubel triple gave the Twins a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first, and they broke the game wide open in the 4th.  Josmil Pinto stroked a second-deck solo dong to open the inning, and Joe Mauer's first RBI of the season chased Twins nemesis Bruce Chen from the game.  Royals reliever Louis Coleman immediately threw a wild pitch to plate Aaron Hicks, and a Colabello double scored two more to make it 7-1 and the rest of the game...fun?  To watch?  What?

Kurt Suzuki added a 2-run double in the 7th and Trevor Plouffe notched an RBI single in the 8th to round out the scoring.

By pitching into the 7th inning, Gibson also gave the bullpen something approaching a break.  Brian Deunsing finished up the 7th and 8th, and Anthony Swarzak completed the 9th. The Twins are now undefeated in night games.  Eat it, sun.

ROBOT ROLL CALL

CHARTS AND GRAPHS

Source: FanGraphs

This was a fun game that I liked watching.  Enjoy your weekend, everybody.