The Minnesota Twins hope to salvage the final game of their three-game series against the host Kansas City Royals after a pair of losses to the American League Central’s worst team.
While the Twins’ bats continue to produce, with 89 runs in 15 games since the All-Star break, the inability to slow opposition bats has resulted in four straight losses, their second-longest slide of the season. The Royals beat them 8-5 on Friday and 10-7 on Saturday.
“We have to hold them down in order for those runs to be meaningful,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We’ve had good at-bats and put ourselves in a spot where we keep scoring runs, we keep pushing runs across as the game goes on.”
The offense is powered primarily by the long ball, but Minnesota also creates havoc on the basepaths, with the double-steal of home becoming a weapon.
Ryan Jeffers and Willi Castro executed it perfectly in the fourth inning Friday. Castro has stolen home three times, each as part of a double steal, the Twins’ second-most steals of home in a single season.
With four hits in as many at-bats since returning from paternity leave, Byron Buxton is looking to put a “tough” month behind him.
“Mentally, I just feel like I’m in a better spot,” Buxton said. “Just trying to be a little bit more consistent.”
Buxton suffered through an 0-for-26 slump bookending the All-Star break and is hitting .200 in the month after going 3-for-3 with three doubles Saturday.
“Obviously, I had a tough month,” Buxton said. “This is more of a growing month for me, mentally. It’s about being consistent and putting good swings on the bat.”
Twins right-hander Kenta Maeda (2-5, 4.62 ERA) will oppose lefty Ryan Yarbrough (3-5, 4.70) in Sunday’s series finale.
Posting a 1.00 ERA, Maeda has won all three previous starts against the Royals, most recently July 4, striking out nine and allowing three hits in seven innings.
In six starts since returning from the injured list last month, Maeda has fanned 44 in 32 2/3 innings with a 2.48 ERA. He allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings in his most recent start last Monday against Seattle.
Yarbrough allowed seven runs on 10 hits over seven innings in his lone start against Minnesota, in 2019. Overall, he’s 1-1 with an ERA of 5.82 and 14 strikeouts in seven appearances.
Since returning from the injured list on July 9, Yarbrough has won two of three starts. He is coming off a 5-3 win against Cleveland last Monday, when he allowed one run on six hits in six innings.
Bobby Witt Jr.’s walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning of Friday’s 8-5 win was just the seventh such hit in Royals’ history. Salvador Perez last did it, also against Minnesota, in 2018. The six previous walk-off slams each broke a tie; Witt’s was the first to erase a deficit.
Witt’s homer off Jhoan Duran’s 101.8 mph fastball was the fastest pitch hit for a home run by a Royals player in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008).
“You don’t really expect him to turn around 102,” Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “That’s really impressive. You’ve got to tip your cap there.”
With nine RBIs in the first two games of the series, Witt became the ninth Royals hitter to record at least nine RBIs in a two-game span. He also became the eighth Royals hitter with four hits each in consecutive games.
— Field Level Media
