For the second time in a week the Twins had trouble with Royals starter Jason Vargas, this time they lost to Kansas City 5-0. It was the first time the Twins have been shutout this season.
Vargas worked seven shutout innings, for the Royals. It’s the fourth straight start he has gone at least that long. More impressive is what he did to the Twins offense, which had scored 86 runs coming into the game – second most in the league.
Jason Vargas line: 7-7-0-0-1-4 on 113 pitches
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) April 19, 2014
Alcedes Escobar had a big game for the Royals he was 3-3 and scored a pair of runs. Mike Moustakas homered and Omar Infante was 2-4 with 2 RBIs.
Ricky Nolasco was tagged with the loss for Minnesota. He gave up five runs on 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings of work.
Nolaso gone after 5.2 innings and five runs on 11 hits. Tonkin in the game,
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) April 19, 2014
The Twins bullpen was sharp. Michael Tonkin, Jared Burton and Brian Duensing kept the Royals off the scoreboard the rest of the way.
The Twins offense didn’t have much punch. They finished with eight hits, but couldn’t string anything together. Josmil Pinto was 2-3 for the Twins, he was the only player with more than one hit.
The #MNTwins are shut out for the first time all year. They also failed to register an extra-base hit for the first time this season.
— Tyler Mason (@tylermason21) April 19, 2014
The Royals took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on four consecutive hits off Nolasco. Their first run came on a close play at the plate on a ground ball from Omar Infante that scored Escobar. Hosmer then followed with a single to drive in Nori Aoki and the Royals took the early lead.
Infante put the Royals up 3-0 on his single in the fifth to score Escobar again. Then in the sixth, Moustakas hit the two-run home run off of Nolasco to put the game out of reach.
It was the fourth straight victory for Kansas City.
The teams play again on Saturday. Kevin Correia is on the mound for Minnesota.
