Minnesota Twins Dominate Kansas City Royals, Win 10-1

Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

If you need a miracle to happen, apparently Target Plaza is the place to get things done. On Friday night, amazing things happened on both ends of the Target Plaza in downtown Minneapolis. At Target Center, Corey Brewer tied a Minnesota Timberwolves franchise record scoring 51 points in a 112-110 win over the Houston Rockets. At Target Field, the Minnesota Twins were dominant and beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-1.

When the probables were announced for the series, it looked like the Twins would surely lose the opener with Twins killer Bruce Chen going to the mound for the Royals. The Twins did anything but get Chenned by the Royals on Friday night. Chen gave up six runs in 3.2 innings of work giving up seven hits and two walks in the process.

On the other hand, the Twins got a sparkling performance from Kyle Gibson, a performance that was strongly needed with the strain that has been put on the bullpen over the first nine games of the 2014 campaign.

Gibson gave up only one run and that came in the first inning on a ground ball to shortstop Pedro Florimon who should have been able to turn a double play to end the inning. That wound up being the only mark of the night for Gibson. Gibson worked 6.1 innings and was the first Twins starter all year to get an out in the seventh inning. Gibson gave up five hits and four walks along with striking out three.

It was an out-right scoring parade for the Twins. Some highlights: Chris Colabello stayed hot with an RBI single in the first and a two-run double in the fourth, Jason Kubel hit an RBI triple (seriously) and Josmil Pinto hit a 404-foot blast to the second deck in left-centerfield and Joe Mauer got his first RBI of the year on a single.

Also pitching for the Twins on Friday was Brian Duensing who pitched a perfect 1.2 innings. Anthony Swarzak came in and shut the door in the ninth inning

The win marked the first home win for the Twins on the season. The Kansas City Royals have not yet won a road game.

Twins RBI: Colabello 3, Kurt Suzuki 2, Pinto, Kubel, Mauer, Plouffe

Twins Extra Base Hits:

Doubles: Suzuki, Plouffe, Colabello

Triples: Kubel

The Twins and Royals face off again on Saturday, first pitch at 1:10 Central from lovely Target Field.