Twins 17, Royals 0: The Twins scored 17 and the Royals scored 0

The 1927 Yankees. The 1975 Cincinnati Reds. The 2017 Minnesota Twins.

If there were ever any doubts in your mind that these Twins are not one of the greatest teams ever assembled, they were quelled tonight. This game was 4-0 by the end of the 1st. It was 10-0 by the end of the 2nd.

It was 20-0 by the end of the 3rd. By the end of the 4th, it was 65-0. Joe Mauer went 8-for-5. Kyle Gibson struck out 27 batters in 6 solid innings of work. Byron Buxton not only hit for the cycle, he hit for the bicycle.

All right, so I’m getting carried away. Tonight was one of those utterly dominating wins that makes you feel like your team is unbeatable. It was one of those nights where you felt confident that every break would go your way. You could predict a home run, and on the next pitch, the ball would soar into the bleacher seats.

Minnesota was so dominant tonight, Royals Review posted the recap in the middle of the second inning. One of THOSE nights.

The Royals stacked the deck against themselves from the get-go. Royals hurler Onelki Garcia was making his first major-league start, and things didn’t go well. He only recorded a single out before giving up four runs and getting pulled from the game. His replacement was seasoned veter— oh, sorry. It was Andres Machado, making his major-league debut.

Machado was twice as good as Garcia, in that he recorded TWO outs before the six runs and three walks he served up knocked him out. Next on the chopping block: Eric Skoglund, who did the whole walk-three-guys, allow-three-runs sort of thing.

But we can talk about how poor the Royals’ inexperienced pitching staff was tonight. Instead, let’s do some quick hits on the Twins lineup, whose performance tonight finally earned them a positive run differential on the season.

Brian Dozier had 3 RBI and walked twice. Joe Mauer went 4-for-4 with a pair knocked in, and is now hitting .303. Byron Buxton went 3-for-5 with two ribbies and three runs. Jorge Polanco had a pair of hits, a pair of runs, and a pair plated. Eduardo Escobar tripled once, homered twice, and drove in six Twins.

It was the most lopsided shutout in Twins history.

And if that doesn’t do it for you, Kyle Gibson was good. He threw six strong innings, gave up just five hits, struck out five, and walked none. It’s the third straight quality start for Gibby. A Kyle Gibson who can keep on doing that through September is a very valuable asset for this team indeed.

And the deeper into the year we go, the more we appreciate that as much as we rag on ‘em, this entire team is full of valuable assets, from electric clubhouse presences to clutch performers to big, sexy starters, trying to achieve the very special accomplishment of making it back into the playoffs.

Until then, 17 runs for the ‘17 Twins is a very special accomplishment indeed.

STUDS:

Yes.

DUDS:

Nope.

ROBOT ROLL CALL: