Twins Win as Gibson Outduels Shields
For the Minnesota Twins, Tuesday night represented an opportunity to show up. In baseball, a game about battling for nine innings each night, the Twins did just that. With Kyle Gibson making his first start for the Twins in over two weeks, it was behind his performance that Minnesota was able to hold off the Royals.
While neither the Twins nor the Royals were able to get much going early on, it was the Twins who struck first. With Danny Santana on third, Twins trade chip, Josh Willingham, was able to drive him in on a sacrifice fly. Shields had relinquished the lead for the first time in the top of the third, and the Twins never looked back.
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Again, two innings later in the top of the fifth, it was the Twins plating an insurance run. Brian Dozier hit his 19th double of the year, and Danny Santana was able to score his second run of the game. With Sam Fuld on third, and Dozier on second, Willingham followed up by loading the bases on a hit by pitch.
Unfortunately for the Twins, Chris Parmelee grounded into a double play to end the inning and the Twins threat. The lead stood at 2-0 going into the bottom of the fifth.
For the Twins however, that was all they would need. Behind seven strong innings for Gibson, in which he gave up only two hits while striking out seven and walking on two, Minnesota would find themselves saving their bullpen.
Casey Fien came on in the bottom of the 8th, and worked around a Lorenzo Cain one out double to keep the Royals looking at a two run deficit.
Once again, it was Glen Perkins on in the ninth inning for the Twins. After giving up a run on an Eric Hosmer bas hit to drive in Omar Infante and cut the lead to one, Perkins was able to get Billy Butler to end the game and seal the 2-1 victory.
Check out the full box score for a complete statistical breakdown.
The Twins get back to 9 games under .500 and will face off again tomorrow night with these Royals at 7:10 pm central time.