Twins 8, Royals 4: Even more dingers

The Royals started this game in almost the exact same way as the game earlier today: a Salvador Perez two run homer. This time, though, the Twins offense was up to the task.

The Twins walked twice in the first inning. Those walks haunted as Robbie Grossman and Max Kepler followed each of them with a HR, giving the Twins a 4-2 lead. In the 2nd, a walk followed by a Brian Dozier double scored another run. 5-2, Twins.

Adalberto Mejia did a nice job of limiting the damage after the first inning. The Royals got one more run off of him on another Salvador Perez homer in the 4th, but that was it.

The Twins answered that run with 2 of their own. Chris Gimenez hit his first homer of the season, and then the Twins pieced together 3 singles to score another run.

Kepler walked, stole a base, and then scored on a Kennys Vargas single in the 7th, making the score 8-3. He also made a couple fantastic catches in center field.

Taylor Rogers started the 8th inning in relief of Mejia, and gave up a solo homer to Eric Hosmer. Brandon Kintzler pitched a very clean 9th inning to end the game.

The Twins split the doubleheader that wasn’t a split-doubleheader but actually just a normal doubleheader. More importantly they won the series!

Notes:

• A fan dropped a home run ball hit by Salvador Perez and many hi-jinks ensued. The camera followed him around for what I thought was a bit too long. They eventually ended up interviewing him. He got a signed Torii Hunter baseball out of it, though!
• Torii Hunter was about to sing a rendition of “Ebony and Ivory” on the broadcast.
• The entire broadcast was just very interesting and odd. Maybe they were a bit loopy after watching baseball all day.

Studs:

Adalberto Mejia: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K (his first win!)

Kepler, Dozier, Grossman, Adrianza

Duds:

NO DUDS TWINS WIN

ROBOT ROLL CALL:

Thanks for joining us today in the two gamethreads! Have a great week!