You have to admire the commitment.
Apropos of more or less nothing, the Twins and Royals sat around until the wee small hours of Saturday morning, enduring two rain delays and fighting apathy to finish a 6-4 contest in front of dozens of fans in Minneapolis.
Why? I don’t know. This game was official when the second delay struck, the Royals were already losing and nothing that happened after really mattered. They could’ve called the game right then and there. Maybe the umps are hourly now? I don’t keep up with labor rules like I used to.
Anyway, Kansas City lost and I’m gonna zoom through this for the insomniacs and the early risers because nobody else is gonna care.
The game’s opening moments (and here at 1 a.m., that feels like roughly 10,000 years ago) looked promising for the Baby Blues. No. 2 hitter Alex Gordon (No. 2 because of his spot in the lineup or because he’s spent two years hitting like poop? You decide) singled, then Salvador Perez was hit by a pitch with one away. Lucas Duda and Rosell Herrera couldn’t capitalize and the Royals walked away with nothing.
The Twins hung a three-spot an inning later, putting the first four batters on base. Logan Forsythe led off with a single, followed by a Max Kepler walk and a Miguel Sano double that got by Hunter Dozier and trickled into foul territory, allowing both Kepler and Forsythe to come to the plate. Jake Cave’s single pushed Sano to third and Father Time Joe Mauer brought him homeward with yet another single to give Minnesota a lead.
(Things could’ve been worse, but your typical 3-2-5-4 double play off the bat of Eddie Rosario got the Royals out of this mess.)
Where Minnesota small-balled its way to a crooked number, the Royals didn’t need to in the top of the third, because Adalberto Mondesi singled and Perez launched a 412-foot rocket into the Kansas City bullpen for his season’s 19th homer to bring the Royals within a run.
And then the rains came.
With two down in the top of the fourth, the sky opened up. If rain is God crying, then someone ran over His dog today, because the first one in particular was a deluge, and shouts to Ryan Lefebvre and Rex Hudler for attempting to convince me, the home viewer, that the biblical amounts of rain we were seeing on TV “wasn’t that bad” in person. I’m sure the two hour delay was just a precaution.
By the team things resumed, the atmosphere, never exactly “Coachella when Kanye comes out” to begin with, was certainly more relaxed and reserved. Someone named Gabriel Moya had replaced Twins starter Jake Odorizzi, and Brian Flynn had been tasked to relieve Heath Fillmyer.
The fourth inning transpired like two boxers feeling one another out. The fifth was a little more hard-hitting, with both teams scratching runs. The Royals briefly took the lead thanks to four straight singles from BERTO, Whit Merrifield, Gordon and Perez, with Gordon’s knock scoring Mondesi, before a Duda sac fly brought in Merrifield.
The Twins responded with a pair of singles from Rosario and Jorge Polanco to lead off their half of the fifth before Logan Morrison bounced to Duda, who wisely got Polanco at second to keep the double play an option, and Forsythe grounded out to BERTO. But then Flynn issued a walk to Kepler, a single to Sano to load ‘em up again and then a walk to Jake Cave to score Morrison.
For whatever reason, Flynn was allowed to keep going into the sixth, giving up a single to Rosario and a double to Polanco for Minnesota’s final run. Then it started raining again, Flynn was removed, fireworks were canceled and the urgency of, “Christ, let’s just finish this one and try again later today,” seemed to set in. Merrifield’s leadoff single in the seventh provided Kansas City’s only baserunner over the final three innings.
At least a groundskeeper got to be a ball boy or something. I’m sure that was a special moment for him?
Your Tweet of Despair
Brandon Maurer pitched a scoreless inning tonight. His ERA is now under 11.00 #Royals #MLB
— Mike Gillespie (@MikeGillespieJD) August 4, 2018
The Bright Spot: 1-through-3 in the KC lineup: 7-for-12, three runs, three RBI
The Nadir: Everybody else in the KC lineup: 3-for-23 with seven strikeouts. Oh, and two rain delays kind of suck.
The Next Step: Jose Berrios, who is good, will take on Burch Smith, who is… less good… just over 18 hours from now. Tune in! Should be lively if everybody gets five hours sleep.