Twins 6, Royals 4: Sano conquers KC

Miguel Sano, who is strong as hell, used that strength to carry your Minnesota Twins to victory on Friday, tallying 4 RBI and keying a 6-4 victory over Kansas City.

It looked to be another “here we go again, KYLE” start, with the Royals posting three runs in the first three innings off starter Kyle Gibson, with a majestic 2-run dong from Salvador Perez doing most of the damage.

Not helping was Ian Kennedy, who set the Twins down in order the first time through the lineup. The first hit he gave up was to Miguel Sano in the 4th, which, it being Miguel Sano, was a towering oppo dong with a man on, making the score 3-2.

That seemed to flip a switch, as the Twins started figuring out Kennedy, working counts and getting on base, and chasing him in the 6th.

Gibson steadied himself after the first three innings, managing to also get into the 6th before the bullpen call. It wasn’t great by any means, but 16 outs and three runs out of Kyle Gibson this year qualifies as progress.

Buddy Boshers replaced Gibson, and after getting out the 6th without incident, was somehow given the 7th, despite the Twins’ 39-man bullpen. The end result of that is too obvious to require elaboration.

With the Royals leading 4-2, the Twins entered the 8th against Joakim Soria, who had not given up an earned run all year. The Twins loaded the bases (a great, great at-bat from Byron Buxton, coaxing a walk, was critical, as was Jorge Bonafacio borking a Max Kepler liner) for the aforementioned Sano. He saw two pitches from Soria. The first one he fouled straight back into home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor’s facemask, staggering him so much he had to leave the game.

After a long delay, the 3-man umpiring crew got in place, and Soria threw his second pitch to Sano. The slugger missed a grand slam by maybe two centimeters, hitting one off the top of the wall in left-center to tie the game. Joe Mauer followed that up with a laser down the right field line (no, really, he pulled it) to clear the bases for a 6-4 Minnesota lead.

And the Twins bullpen held the fucking line. Ryan Pressly, Craig Breslow (WHO GOT THE GODDAMN WIN BY GETTING ONE GODDAMN OUT), Taylor Rogers, Matt Belisle, and Brandon Kintzler combined to shore up the win. Twins are back to .500 on a solid comeback road win. Cool

STUDS: Sano.

DUDS: Paul Molitor, who, with a million-man bullpen, decided to just ride the Buddy Boshers show for some reason that I will never understand.

ROBOT ROLL CALL:

Enjoy your weekend, everybody.