Twins 5, Royals 4: Sneaking on through

At first, it was all Royals. And, really, how could they. On Joe Mauer night? This game has gone to the dogs.

Jake Odorizzi had an uncharacteristic night, giving up four runs in six innings of work. Two homers supplied most of the Kansas City scoring — a first-inning shot from Jorge Soler and a fifth-inning blast from Whit Merrifield. Shortly after Merrifield’s dinger, Lucas Duda brought home a run with a sac fly.

At that point, the score was 4-1 and the crowd was quiet. The only run on the board for the Twins came courtesy of a fourth-inning solo home run off the bat of Max Kepler. Then, in the home fifth, the Minnesota bats came to life, and brought the crowd back with them. Mitch Garver led off with a single, and Marwin Gonzalez followed by depositing a baseball into the seats.

With the score now 4-3, Ehire Adrianza reached on an error, advanced on a two-out walk, then scored on a Jorge Polanco double to tie the game.

The next inning, C.J. Cron doubled home the go-ahead score. The Royals would elect to intentionally fill the bases, then got a key force at home for the second out of the inning. A liner would allow them to escape the sixth without allowing further damage.

Trevor May cleaned up a quick seventh, and Blake Parker stranded a runner on third in the eighth.

Taylor Rogers had ninth-inning duties tonight. His first out came on a brilliant sliding catch by Marwin Gonzalez out in right field. Then, a similar line drive to right put a runner aboard. A soft tapper back to Rogers made for a 1-3 putout, but advanced the tying run to second.

Alex Gordon walked to bring up a mismatch, with lefty Rogers facing righty Soler, who had already homered earlier in the evening.

After two quick strikes (and a waste pitch), Soler flied out to center, and Twins fans went home happy.

It’s the third straight win for the Twins, who go for the sweep tomorrow!

STUDS:

CF Max Kepler (1-for-3, R, BB, HR, RBI)

RF Marwin Gonzalez (2-for-4, R, HR, RBI)

DUDS:

NO DUDS! TWINS WIN!

ROBOT ROLL CALL: