Kansas City Royals Shutout The Minnesota Twins
Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports
I made fun of FOX Sports North play-by-play man Dick Bremer last weekend when the Kansas City Royals where in town to take on the Minnesota Twins. I said that Bremer had a man crush on Alex Gordon and after Gordon’s defense performance in left field for the Royals on Friday night, I think Bremer is more right than wrong with his man crush.
Gordon played a marvelous game in the field, holding multiple hits that would be doubles in other parks to singles. It helps that he threw out Josmil Pinto on a dime. Gordon threw the ball on a rope from the warning track right to second base, no bounce or anything, to nail Josmil Pinto. It was quite impressive.
As you may have figured, if I am talking about the impressive defensive play of the opponent’s left fielder that the Twins must not have done too hot on Friday night. You figured right.
The Kansas City Royals shutout the high-run producing Minnesota Twins and didn’t even allow Minnesota an extra-base hit. The Twins did snag eight hits throughout the ballgame, but every single one was a single.
Darin Mastroianni and Trevor Plouffe were the only starters for the Twins not to register a hit in the ballgame. A day after drawing eight walks in an inning against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Twins only drew one walk, the walkee being Josmil Pinto. Pinto was the only Twin to record multiple hits.
Ricky Nolasco had another tough outing on Friday. Nolasco gave up five runs on 11 hits in 5.2 innings of work. His ERA is now up to 6.08 on the year. Michael Tonkin, Jared Burton and Brian Duensing came out of the bullpen to hold the Royals hitless after Nolasco’s departure.
Three of the Royals runs came on infield singles, two of those in the third and one in the fifth inning. The Royals scoring was capped off by a Mike Moustakas two-run home run.
Jason Vargas started the game for the Royals and pitched seven solid innings. Vargas gave up seven singles in the outing and notched four strikeouts.
With the loss the Twins fall back to .500 at 8-8. The Twins now have a 3-4 record on the road.