Twins 9, Royals 0: Offense finds a spark

The Twins scored a lot of runs tonight, but I want to start with the great pitching we saw from Sonny Gray and the bullpen. Gray worked 6 shutout innings, notching 10 strikeouts with just 1 walk. That walk in the 2nd was followed by three straight strikeouts, all of them looking. In the 4th he stranded Bobby Witt Jr. at third by getting Michael Massey to strike out.

Gray did start the 7th inning, but gave up back to back singles. With the Twins only up 3-0 at this point, Caleb Thielbar was brought in. He got Massey to ground out, then struck out Michael Taylor and Nick Pratto to end the threat.

As for the offense, Sandy Leon got the first run of the game in with a sacrifice bunt, of all things, in the 2nd inning. Luis Arraez followed that up with a 2-out RBI single, but got thrown out trying for 2nd base. Gilberto Celestino made it a 3-0 game with a solo blast in the 4th inning, his 2nd of the season.

Following the excellent escape artistry displayed by Thielbar, the Twins lineup went to work on the Royals pen, starting with Wyatt Mills. Arraez led off with a double, Carlos Correa walked, and after a Buxton ground out, Jose Miranda walked to fill the bases. Max Kepler grounded out for an RBI, beating out the double play. Urshela singled and Nick Gordon doubled to make it a 6-0 game.

They pushed across 3 more runs in the 8th, this time against Luke Weaver. Miranda, Urshela, and Gordon all hit RBI singles, ballooning their lead to 9 runs.

Michael Fulmer and Cole Sands each worked shutout innings in the 8th and 9th, giving the Twins a much needed win, 9-0.

Studs:

Pretty much everyone?

Gio Urshela: 4-5, 2 RBI

Jose Miranda: 3-4, RBI, BB

Luis Arraez: 3-5, 2B, 2 R, RBI

Sonny Gray: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 SO.

You, the person reading this.

Duds:

NO DUDS TWINS WIN!

Thanks for joining the game thread, everyone!