Royals 11, Twins 6: Bullpen blows up in game one

Well this was a very disappointing, back-and-fourth game for the Twins—at least until it wasn’t. The Royals dominated the second part of this game, taking advantage of the Twins bullpen and making it seem a lot less close than it was. It was basically a terrible way to start a doubleheader.

I mean, this game DRAGGED. At the three-hour mark, this game was only in the seventh inning.The game took nearly four hours total.

It started off good for the Twins, though. Luke Farrell, a rookie making his major-league debut, started on the mound for the Royals. He’s the son of John Farrell, the Red Sox manager, who got special permission to leave his team to attend the game. The senior Farrell got to watch his son give up five runs on seven hits and three walks, and get pulled after only 2.2 innings. The best part was when Luke walked in two runs in the bottom of the second inning.

Farrell then gave up a home run to Miguel Sano—a splasher into the fountains—to lead-off the third inning. He gave up a double to Max Kepler and a couple other hits, and like I said, was pulled before the end of the third inning. Things were looking good for the Twins.

Unfortunately, the Royals came back—and in a big way. They hit two home runs in the bottom of the fourth inning off Twins starter Jose Berrios, making the game 5-4. Then they tied it up 5-5 in the bottom of the fifth with another home run from Brandon Moss.

As mentioned, this was a back-and-fourth affair, though. Kennys Vargas hit a double in the top of the sixth, and scored the go-ahead run later that inning on a double by Jorge Polanco. That would be all the scoring the Twins would do.

The Royals came back and buried the Twins, scoring six more runs off the Twins bullpen (three off Tyler Duffey and three of newly-recalled Ryan Pressly, if you were curious).

STUDS

• Miguel Sano: Only 1-for-5, but that one was a big slopper tater that made me feel good.
• Kennys Vargas: 1-for-3, one double, two walks, two runs scored.

duds

• Tyler Duffey: 1 IP, four hits, three earned runs.
• Chris Gimenez: 0-for-4, one walk, three strikeouts (and not the pitching kind).

ROLL CALL!