Royals lose 3-1 to Twins on walkoff Ty France home run
The Royal killer strikes again.
Well, it was in fact the low-scoring affair that was promised, but it was equal parts frustrating and fascinating.
Unfortunately, Royal-killer Ty France asserted his presence against the Royals’ best reliever, Lucas Erceg. He left a slider hanging over the middle of the plate, and France did not miss. He blasted it into the Twins bullpen in left-center field for a walkoff home run, winning the game for the Twins 3-1.
The Royals, despite scoring only one run through nine innings, had plenty of chances against Pablo López and the bullpen. It didn’t have to be a walkoff situation. The Royals got seven hits in 5 2⁄3 innings off López, a very tough pitcher, but went a measly 1-10 with runners in scoring position. That’s just not going to do it.
The only run they did get was in the very first inning. Jonathan India was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a single by Vinnie Pasquantino. Cavan Biggio hit a line drive to the right-center field gap for a double to score India. That was it!
They wasted a leadoff double from Freddy Fermín in the second. They had guys on first and second with one out in the third inning. Bobby Witt Jr singled to lead off the fifth and then stole second with one out. India led off the seventh with a walk. Maikel Garcia led off the eighth with a hit but got picked off.
The ninth inning was the ONLY inning in which the Royals did NOT have a baserunner. Like I said...plenty of chances to score! They just couldn’t get the job done.
It was a waste of Noah Cameron’s performance.
Cameron was brilliant in 6 2⁄3 innings. He did not even walk a guy until the 7th, after which he was finally removed. He allowed only four hits and had eight strikeouts. The only run Cameron allowed was a Carlos Correa home run. It wasn’t even that bad of a pitch - a high, 90mph fastball - but Correa just muscled it to the deepest part of the ballpark.
And he did that all with only 82 pitches. That walk was just maybe a little too wild for Q.
But having said that, it is amazing that the Royals can have a “next guy up” perform like this. I am not used to the Royals just being able to pluck a guy from AAA and plop him into the rotation and just keep chugging along. I am going to appreciate this, regardless of the result of the game itself (which, again, yes, was plenty frustrating).
I fear we will continue to see the Royals offense waste brilliant pitching performances for the whole season. They can’t keep scoring one run and expect to win. They know it, we know it, everyone knows it.
It’s just up to the guys to execute with runners on base.
The Royals fall to 28-24 with the loss. The Twins move up to 28-22. Cleveland also won tonight, against the Tigers, and so they are tied with the Twins for second place in the AL Central.
The Royals and Twins play again on Saturday in an afternoon game, which starts at 1:10pm US Central.