Chris Young held the Twins hitless for 6 1/3 innings and led the Kansas City Royals to another low-scoring victory at Target Field Tuesday night, 2-0.
Young walked three and struck out two while picking up the victory, his fifth of the season.
Kansas City got on the scoreboard in the first inning off Twins starter Trevor May. Mike Moustakas drove in Alcides Escobar before the first out of the game was even recorded.
May settled down after that and pitched around trouble a few times. He held the Royals to one run by scattering seven hits and striking out five, but it wasn’t good enough as he was tagged with the loss.
The Twins only real chance to score came in the seventh inning, when Trevor Plouffe tripled off the right field wall – missing a home run by inches. But it wound up being the only hit of the night and the Twins failed to get the run across the plate, leaving Plouffe stranded at third.
After scoring more than five runs per game in the month of May, the Twins offense has gone into a June swoon.
#MNTwins averaged 5.15 runs per game in May. So far in June, just 2.56 runs per game.
— Tyler Mason (@tylermason21) June 10, 2015
After the game, Plouffe told the Pioneer Press’ Mike Berardino they are not coming through in the clutch right now.
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The Royals added to the lead in the ninth on a solo home run from Salvador Perez, giving Kansas City closer Greg Holland an extra run to work with in the ninth. He recorded his 11th save of the season.
The win means the Royals now have sole possession of first place in the American League Central Division. They will try and keep it that way during the series finale Wednesday evening.
Edinson Volquez takes the mound for Kansas City against Twins righty Kyle Gibson.
