The Royal are 4-5 in their last nine games and have lost those five games by a total of five runs.
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Minnesota Twins designated hitter Miguel Sano (22) celebrates with teammates in after scoring a run during the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Target Field on Wednesday night.
Kansas City Royals’ Paulo Orlando hits a single off Minnesota Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson in the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, in Minneapolis. Danny Duffy draws Wednesday’s start in the final game of the series versus Minnesota.
Minnesota outfielders Robbie Grossman and Byron Buxton both homered as the Twins trimmed the Kansas City Royals last night at Target Field, 6-5.
NATIONALS 6, BRAVES 4: Trea Turner and Chris Heisey each homered during a five-run third inning, Max Scherzer pitched seven strong innings for his 16th victory and the Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves 6-4 on Monday.
Former Royal Ervin Santana also allowed three runs in six-plus innings, scattering three hits and walking three while striking out six.
After almost squandering the opportunity with a fly out and a strikeout, Buxton scored to make it 3-2 when Sano reached on a throwing error by Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar. He also became the first Twins player to hit back-to-back leadoff homers since Jones in 2002. The Twins were a blur on the basepaths. “We’ll try to keep them fresh as we can”. Grossman finished 3-for-4 with two R-B-I for the Twins, who avoided a three-game sweep.
“That’s part of baseball life”.
Dozier’s been so great and so powerful at a position that doesn’t always demand high power output, that he’s moved into the top-10 among position players in Wins Above Replacement, according to Fangraphs.
Plating five runs against the Twins, slugger Morales capped the Royals’ seven-run ninth-inning with a home run, his second of the game.
The defending champion Royals stayed four games behind Baltimore, which holds the second wild card. “We quite possibly could have been 6-0 at home”, manager Ned Yost said. “So that definitely hurts”.
Entering play on June 1, Dozier was hitting.202 with 5 home runs and 17 RBIs. Alex Wimmers picked up his first career win and Brandon Kintzler notched his 14th save.
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Twins 3B Trevor Plouffe was diagnosed with a strain of the intercostal and oblique muscles on his left side, his third injury this year to that area including a broken rib. Nineteen of those dingers have come since August 1, a time period in which Dozier has been going deep every 7.8 at-bats.
