The Minnesota Twins couldn’t close out a late lead and fell to the Royals 6-5 Tuesday night in Kansas City.
The Royals rallied against the Twins bullpen in the eighth inning to reclaim the lead at 6-5, highlighted by a clutch two-out hit from Mike Moustakas to drive in the go-ahead run off of Twins closer Glen Perkins.
Makes sense to bring in Perkins despite tie game in the 8th. Big situation with runner at third. Facing left-handed Moustakas.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) April 22, 2015
Moustakas led the Royals, finishing 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs. Alex Gordon also homered in the game for Kansas City.
Chris Young picked up the win in relief for the Royals, while Wade Davis picked up the save with a perfect ninth inning – striking out Danny Santana for the final out.
Tommy Milone, who started for Minnesota, did not have his best stuff but didn’t factor in the decision. Milone allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings, but left the game with a 5-4 lead.
The Twins put up four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, thanks to some timely hitting and a nifty two-out rally. Trevor Plouffe, Oswaldo Arcia, Kurt Suzuki and Shane Robinson came through with four consecutive hits to turn a 3-1 Twins deficit into a 5-3 lead.
The Royals got one back in the bottom of the inning to cut the Twins lead to 5-4, and it remained that way until Kansas City’s eighth inning rally.
The win improves the Royals to 7-1 at Kauffman Stadium this season.
Mike Pelfrey (0-0) starts for the Twins Wednesday night in the series finale against Jeremy Guthrie (1-0).
