As the visiting Minnesota Twins look to avoid a weekend sweep against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday afternoon, they will hope for better results from their usually solid bullpen.

Leading the Royals 2-0 entering the eighth inning Saturday, Minnesota’s Jhoan Duran surrendered three runs while Griffin Jax allowed three additional hits and a run as Kansas City stormed back for a 4-2 win.

“We have a two-run lead in the eighth with our two best rested and ready to go,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of his expectations. “I feel good about that. We can hand it to two very good relievers, guys we have trusted in that situation.”

Duran, who entered the game Saturday with baseball’s fifth-best save conversion rate, took his ninth relief loss and fourth in his past nine outings while Jax, who has 23 holds, got his fifth blown save.

While losing nine of their past 13 games and falling into third place behind the Royals (78-65) in the American League Central — and five games behind the division-leading Cleveland Guardians — the Twins (76-66) have allowed 22 runs after the sixth inning.

The Royals, who are 3 1/2 games behind Cleveland, occupy the AL’s second wild-card spot, with the Twins holding the third and final slot.

The Twins have baseball’s second-best opponent OPS in the seventh inning or later, and Minnesota is 58-4 when leading after seven innings. But two of those late-inning losses have occurred during their current slide.

“When you’ve got a two-run lead in the eighth inning, you should win the game, period,” Baldelli said. “When you aren’t able to complete it, it’s going to frustrate everybody, and it should.”

Minnesota’s recent offensive woes aren’t making things easier. They had five hits Saturday after getting only four in Friday’s 5-0 shutout and have 11 runs while losing four of their past five games.

Saturday’s comeback win was the Royals’ 37th, the majors’ second-highest total.

Right-handers Simeon Woods Richardson (5-3, 3.95 ERA) and Michael Wacha (11-7, 3.50) are scheduled to take the mound in the season finale between the clubs on Sunday.

One of three rookies in the Twins’ rotation, Woods Richardson is 2-0 with a 4.91 ERA over his past four starts but hasn’t gotten beyond the fifth inning. He surrendered three runs on six hits and two walks in 3 2/3 innings against Tampa Bay on Monday, a 5-4 win for Minnesota.

Woods Richardson won his lone start against the Royals on May 28, allowing two runs on three hits and two walks in five innings, striking out four.

Wacha is 4-1 with a 3.67 ERA in six career starts against the Twins and last faced them on May 9, 2023, while pitching for San Diego. He earned the win.

In his most recent start, Monday 2 against Cleveland, Wacha took his first loss since June in a 4-2 game.

“He threw the ball really, really well,” Royals interim manager Paul Hoover said after Wacha allowed two runs on five hits while surrendering a two-run homer to Lane Thomas. “He kept them off balance. One swing got him.”

(Hoover is stepping in for manager Matt Quatraro, who is away for a personal matter.)

“Everything was good until the fifth,” Wacha said. “I was able to keep them off balance until then, and then just a pitch that didn’t really do anything, and he didn’t miss it. It was kind of the only cutter that didn’t really do much. It just kind of spun.”

The five-inning outing broke a string of six straight starts of at least six innings by Wacha. In his past 12 starts, he is 7-1 with a 2.92 ERA.

–Field Level Media