Twins Skid Hits 3, Royals Romp 7-3

The Twins led 5-0 in a game that didn't count on Wednesday once the rain set in. Since then, they've been April/May 2016 bad. Which is bad.

Kyle Gibson was mediocre, the bullpen wasn't much better, and the defending champion Kansas City Royals cruised to a 7-3 victory.

It wasn't entire Gibby's fault, as the Royals took an early lead thanks to a Trevor Plouffe throwing error extending the first, allowing Eric Hosmer's RBI double to start the scoring.

With the Royals up 2-0, the Twins tried to make it interesting, as the two hottest hitters on the team, Miguel Sano and Brian Dozier, stroked sweet solo and man-on dongs, respectively, to give the Twins a 3-2 lead.

And that was the extent of the optimism.

Gibson loaded the bases with two outs in the 5th, and with Salvador Perez on the ropes, Gibby jammed him inside and broke his bat. Unfortunately, the ball landed just beyond Plouffe and Jorge Polanco in very short left, two runs scored, and you could sort of feel the air go out of Minnesota's balloon.

J.T. Chargois' wild pitch accounted for another KC run, and Pat Dean's meatball to Kendrys Morales gave the Royals their final run.

STUDS

• Sano and Dozier.
• Dean. After the Morales dinger, he struck out five in a row in three innings of work. Between him and Andy Albers on Thursday, they kept the overworked bullpen from being over-overworked.