Down 9-0 after two innings, the Twins nearly rallied for what would’ve been the largest comeback win in team history, but the Royals held on for an 11-8 win.
Rookie right-hander Fernando Romero allowed just seven earned runs in his first five career starts, but the Royals rocked him for eight runs and he was pulled after 1 2/3 innings.
Lucky #⃣7⃣. #KeepTheLineMoving pic.twitter.com/CZGdy3Ue1B
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) May 31, 2018
The Twins than chipped away with one run in the third, one in the fourth, two in the fifth and four in the seventh to make it a 9-8 game. Here’s all of their run-scoring hits:
- Miguel Sano RBI single (9-1 Royals)
- Ehire Adrianza RBI double (9-2 Royals)
- Brian Dozier home run (9-3 Royals)
- Eduardo Escobar RBI single (9-4 Royals)
- Ehire Adrianza home run (9-5 Royals)
- Miguel Sano 2-run double (9-7 Royals)
- Eduaro Escobar RBI single (9-8 Royals)
All the while, Aaron Slegers, the 6-foot-10 right-hander who was called up before the game after Byron Buxton was placed on the 10-day disabled list, worked four straight scoreless innings before allowing a homer to Hunter Dozier in the seventh inning to push Kansas City’s lead to 10-8.
Jorge Soler’s homer in the eighth off of Ryan Pressly put the Royals up 11-8.
Minnesota’s largest come-from-behind win in team history is seven runs. It happened May 10, 2000 when they rallied from 8-1 down to beat Cleveland 10-9.
There’s still a long way to go, but the Twins are already nine games out of the Wild Card race and five-and-a-half games behind Cleveland in the AL Central, which puts a lot of pressure on Minnesota to play well in their four-game series against Cleveland Thursday-Sunday at Target Field.
