Twins lose to Royals again as Bailey Ober, bullpen roughed up

KANSAS CITY, MO. – This weekend was supposed to be a welcome respite, albeit in 100-degree heat, from the pressures of a pennant race for the Twins. But the Royals — and especially Bobby Witt Jr. — have turned up the heat even higher.

Bailey Ober surrendered six runs and 11 hits, both of them career highs, over four messy innings, the Royals added four more runs off relievers to thwart the Twins' attempt at a rally and Minnesota lost its fourth consecutive game, 10-7 at Kauffman Stadium.

"Normally, if we're putting up that many runs, we'll be OK. But there were a lot of things we didn't do real well," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "That was a hard one to watch."

The Guardians lost for a second consecutive night to the White Sox in Chicago, freezing the gap between first-place Minnesota and second-place Cleveland at 1½ games. But the Twins hardly looked like a playoff contender against the Royals, a team that opened this series 25 games behind them.

Witt continued his abuse of Twins pitching, following Friday night's four-hit performance, which included a walk-off grand slam, with four more on Saturday, including a first-inning solo home run that set the tone for another Kansas City romp. Witt, who also singled twice and tripled in a run, has driven in nine runs in the first two games of the series.

"I don't really want to talk about Bobby Witt Jr.," Baldelli said. "I've seen enough of Bobby Witt Jr. for this season."

He's probably not crazy about center fielder Kyle Isbel, either, considering his 4-for-5 night. Or Witt's double-play partner, second baseman Michael Massey, who also homered off Ober, part of back-to-back four-hit innings by Kansas City that staked them to a 6-0 lead and denied Ober his first win in seven career starts against the Royals.

"I had probably the best pregame bullpen I've had in a long time, and I came in there and just wasn't where I needed to be," Ober said. "Made some mistakes, and I paid for it. A 3-2 slider in the zone [to Witt], home run. Threw a fastball up an in to Massey, where we wanted the ball to be. Hit it for a home run."

It wasn't just an Ober problem, however. The Twins used three other pitchers, and each of them gave up at least one run as the Royals piled up a season-high 18 hits.

The Twins scored at least seven runs against the Royals for the sixth time this year, but for the first time, it wasn't enough. Byron Buxton doubled three times for the first time in his career and was hit by a pitch, the first time all season he's reached base four times. Including his pinch hit on Friday, he's still batting 1.000 since the birth of his third son, Baire, last Monday.

"Just trying to be a little bit more consistent. Obviously, I had a tough month," said Buxton, who last collected three extra-base hits in a game on Sept. 30, 2021, against the Tigers. "It just starts trickling a little bit more hits here and there, and then becomes a little bit more barrels."

But the Twins killed some rallies with bad luck or poor decisions, too. Max Kepler, who later hit his 15th homer of the season, tried to score from third base on Matt Wallner's fly ball in the second inning but was thrown out by MJ Melendez. The Twins asked that the play be overturned because Salvador Perez was blocking the plate too early, but replay umpire Paul Emmel disagreed.

"You're not sure, truthfully, the way it's going to get ruled, and we're not alone," Baldelli said. "We're seen plays get called blocking the plate that are in the range of what we saw today."

In the sixth, the Twins had pulled within a run at 7-6 and had the bases loaded with one out, but Carlos Correa hit a hard grounder toward second base that Massey smothered and turned into a double play, the MLB-leading 20th Correa has hit this season.

And in the eighth inning, after scoring twice to close the gap to three runs, Correa singled to left field. Willi Castro, who had also singled, decided to try to take third, but he was easy prey for Melendez, who snuffed the rally by easily throwing Castro out.

"We needed baserunners and many runs at that point. Taking an extra base [was a mistake], but Willi knows that," Baldelli said. "I think he might have lost his mind for a minute there."