Royals 5, Twins 4: Botched Fourth Costs Minnesota the Game

On Tuesday, Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter asked who my favorite Twin was to watch. I gave multiple answers, but my last sentence was "I also like to watch Kubel and Colabello pretend to track balls in the outfield corners. If I don't laugh, I'll cry."

We saw a prime example of that yesterday, when Jason Kubel lost an Alex Gordon fly ball in the second (which didn't come back to bite the Twins) and when Chris Colabello took his first step on a fly ball - the wrong way - in the fourth, that led to runners on second and third with nobody out. It would be wrong to blame the entire frame on Colabello, though. Kevin Correia didn't help when he beaned the number nine hitter, and then whoever had the controller for this game turned Trevor Plouffe's awareness down to zero as he completely missed Nori Aoki's slapper between himself and the third base bag. That one gave the Royals the lead. The final run of the inning scored when Aoki went to steal third, and Josmil Pinto, who would have had the ball there in plenty of time, just threw the ball over Plouffe's head and into left field.

By the time the dust settled it was 5-2, wiping out the bases loaded walk from Aaron Hicks in the second and Kurt Suzuki's solo homer in the fourth.

The Twins made a run in the fifth, including a Plouffe double and a two-run single from Suzuki, but that was as close as they'd get. Danny Duffy, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland all looked exceptional, and combined for four shutout innings to end it.

Minnesota continues to draw walks, collecting five more on the afternoon, but was once again terrible with runners in scoring position. Phil Hughes will need a good start today just to help the team avoid a sweep.

ROLL CALL!

1. twinsbrewer (47)
2. WestRiverTwinsFan (45)
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