The Kansas City Royals could not muster any offense against Joe Ryan and the Minnesota Twins as they were defeated 4-0 tonight at Kauffman Stadium.
Both offenses were quiet early on. Seth Lugo allowed a couple baserunners but otherwise got through Minnesota’s order for the first time without incident. Ryan, meanwhile, was dealing on the other side, retiring the first seven Royals batters. Maikel Garcia laced a single in the third inning to put a number in the hit column, but they were deprived of a rally after Kyle Isbel grounded out and Jonathan India was denied a hit on a great diving stop down the third base line by Willi Castro.
Minnesota broke through in the fourth. Lugo lost the strike zone, walking Carlos Correa and Trevor Larnach consecutively with one out. He snared a comebacker off the bat of Ty France to get the second out, but then Edouard Julien ripped a single to right to score Correa. Further damage was averted thanks to a heads-up play by Hunter Renfroe — noticing Larnach taking a wide turn around second base, Renfroe fired the ball into second, getting Larnach caught in a rundown. He’d be tagged out to end the inning, but Minnesota led 1-0.
Kansas City had a chance to respond immediately when Bobby Witt Jr. got beat by a sweeper but managed to get just enough of it to poke it through the right side of the infield and hustle to second for a double. He would advance no further. Vinnie Pasquantino flew out. Then, with a 1-1 count on Salvador Perez, Witt took off for third. Perez swung and lined it into center field. Harrison Bader ranged into the gap and caught it as Witt, who had already reached third base, turned around to try to get back to second. He was unsuccessful as Bader made a strong throw to second to double him off.
The Royals would get just two baserunners the rest of the game and neither would advance past first base. That 1-0 lead the Twins had would have stood up but they did score a few more. They got a two out rally going against Lugo in the sixth for another run as well as solo homers by Matt Wallner and France. Joe Ryan didn’t totally dominate — he only had four strikeouts and gave up plenty of hard contact, but most of it was on the ground. Balls hit in the air by Royals in this game mostly found their way into a Twin’s glove. Teams don’t win many games in which they only get four baserunners, as was the case for Kansas City tonight.
The loss drops Kansas City to 6-6. They will try again for the series victory tomorrow afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.
Seth Lugo: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 0 HR
Joe Ryan: 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 0 HR
Bobby Witt Jr.: 1-3, 2B, BB
Ty France: 3-4, HR, R, 2 RBI
