Jhoan Duran gives up walk-off grand slam as Bobby Witt Jr., Royals spoil Twins rally

KANSAS CITY, MO. — It wasn't Bobby Witt's game-winning grand slam that bothered the Twins on Friday. It was what came immediately before that.

Jhoan Duran, seemingly unable to locate his breaking pitches in the strike zone, walked back-to-back hitters to load the bases for Witt, who had already collected three hits. When the count reached 3-2, Witt was waiting for a fastball, and he pummeled the 102-mph pitch beyond the seats in left-center, capping a back-and-forth 8-5 win over the Twins at Kauffman Stadium.

"I'm not worried about him getting hit. That's not going to be a sustainable thing, where he's giving up hard contact," Twins pitching coach Pete Maki said of Duran's fourth blown save of the season in 21 opportunities. "The thing to address is the free passes. It's not like him."

Of course, it's not like anyone to be able to turn on a triple-digit fastball in on his hands. Witt managed it, and produced the first grand slam and first walk-off hit of his career. His career-high six-RBI day also earned the Royals their second win against the Twins in 11 meetings this year.

Duran "had shown he's not going to land the curveball, not going to land the splitter [in the strike zone]. So [Witt is] selling out dead red for the heater," admired catcher Ryan Jeffers. "And he's got some of the quicker hands in the league. Tip the cap, it's really impressive."

Really spoiled the Twins' mood, too, since the ninth inning felt like a perfectly lovely welcome-back party for Byron Buxton and Jorge Polanco. Buxton, missing for three games after the birth of his son, started a ninth-inning rally with his first pinch-hit of the season, and Polanco, absent for seven weeks while his strained hamstring healed, finished it with a game-tying, two-out double.

"We definitely had to do some things to get ourselves back in it, and Polo was a big part of that," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We gave ourselves a pretty nice opportunity to win the game. It's disappointing not to win this game, the way we came back."

They came back to tie it with two runs in the ninth, and even took a 5-4 lead in the 10th on Kyle Farmer's two-out single up the middle. But it still wasn't enough.

The ninth-and-tenth-inning back-and-force provided a surprise ending to a game that had the look of so many other Sonny Gray starts this year: The All-Star righthander with the fifth-best ERA in the league completely dominated Kansas City for most of it, needing only 62 pitches to retire 16 of the first 18 hitters he faced and even picking off one of the two who reached base. The other was Kyle Isbel's home run, the first Gray had allowed in July, but it seemed not to matter.

Without warning, however, Gray suddenly allowed three consecutive hits and two runs, turning his one-run lead into a one-run deficit. It's the 15th consecutive start in which Gray, 4-0 in April and 0-5 ever since, has failed to earn a victory, just two short of the franchise record held by Roger Erickson (1978-79) and Liam Hendriks (2011-12).

"I'm definitely aware of it, I'll say that," Gray said of his three-month-old winless streak. "I'm definitely aware of it."

Gray was one strike away from finishing off Royals leadoff hitter Maikel Garcia, but left a 2-2 fastball belt-high and on the outside corner. Garcia belted it off the right-field fence, and when it bounced away from Max Kepler, he wound up on third base with a triple.

Two pitches later, Witt smacked a low but in-the-middle cutter to the top of the left-field wall, and umpires initially ruled it a home run. Replay showed that it hit the padding and bounced back onto the field, and Witt was given a ground-rule double.

MJ Melendez followed with a line drive to right field, a single that drove Witt home — and likely drove Gray crazy. That's because it marked the third time in his past four starts that Gray has surrendered a lead with one uncharacteristically bad inning. At it's also only the second time in 11 meetings that the Royals have beaten the Twins this year, each of them by rallying from a 2-1 deficit.

"I thought i executed fine. Their leadoff hitter hits a triple on a 2-2 fastball that I was convicted in," Gray said. "I felt like I was throwing strikes and attacking the zone."

The Twins, who scored eight runs against Kansas City starter Brady Singer in only 2⅔ innings at Target Field in April, this time forced him to throw 104 pitches in only five innings. But they found it hard to score, leaving four runners in scoring position during his start.

The only inning they broke through against the Royals righthander was the fourth, and they did it in historic fashion. After Max Kepler led off with a double, Jorge Polanco and Matt Wallner struck out. But Willi Castro drew a walk, and Ryan Jeffers lined a two-out single to center, scoring Kepler and moving Castro to third base.

With Singer paying little attention to him, Jeffers headed for second base on a pitch to Joey Gallo. When rookie catcher Freddy Fermin threw there, Jeffers stopped short of the base while Castro broke for the plate. Second baseman Nicky Lopez hesitated as he considered throwing to the plate, then changed his mind and tried to tag Jeffers. But the hesitation cost him, and Jeffers reached the base safely as Castro scored.

It's the third time this season that Castro has stolen home on a double steal, making him the first Twin to steal home more than twice in a season since Rod Carew stole home seven times in 1969. And it was Jeffers' third stolen base this year, making him the first Twins catcher to collect more than two steals since Joe Mauer in 2012.