Jake Odorizzi, Zack Littell both forced out because of injuries as Twins lose to Royals 7-2

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Jake Odorizzi entered the Twins' Zoom room late Friday night and needed assistance to sit down in a chair.

"Kind of hard to breathe at the moment," he said. "Still not the easiest to move around. But it could have been much worse. I saw the replay and it missed my elbow by a couple inches, so I think all things considered I feel pretty lucky to miss that. Just kind of take it off the chest, deal with it."

The righthander took a few shots in the first inning, giving up four runs before recording an out. But it was a blow to the abdomen in the fourth that did him in as the Royals downed the Twins 7-2.

Alex Gordon's line drive nailed Odorizzi before deflecting toward second base. The righthander dropped to all fours as Gordon ran safely to first to put two men on. Twins head trainer Michael Salazar and manager Rocco Baldelli went to the mound to check on Odorizzi, who was making his third start since recovering from an intercostal strain.

"That's a frightening moment," Baldelli said. "You never want to see anything like that on a field or anywhere else. Jake's abdomen took the brunt of it."

Odorizzi stood up to gather himself. He wasn't trying to stay in the game; he was trying to catch his breath after being hit with a line drive with an exit velocity of 103.2 miles per hour. He now knows what it's like to be hit by an Aroldis Chapman fastball.

"He's got a pretty good mark visible from across the room," Baldelli said. "Right there on his abdomen."

It came after Odorizzi gave up four runs in the first inning, three coming on a home run by Jorge Soler off a slider up in the strike zone. The 2019 All-Star is still trying to get his bearings after getting a late start to the late season.

To make matters worse for the Twins, reliever Zack Littell had to leave the game in the seventh after giving up a two-run home run to Hunter Dozier, then hitting Soler with the next pitch.

Littell has right elbow inflammation. Baldelli didn't sound very worried about the severity of the injury, but Littell will be spending the next two days in the trainer's room.

The Twins are just starting their 10-game road trip but probably wish it was already over. They left the Twin Cities having taken two of three from Milwaukee, but the series was costly as outfielder Byron Buxton and catcher Mitch Garver landed on the injured list.

So the Twins are facing Kansas City, Cleveland and Detroit with their roster as depleted as it has been all season. Baldelli on Friday decided to rest shortstop Jorge Polanco, who had appeared in every game until that point. So the Twins took on Danny Duffy and the Royals without five starters: Polanco, Buxton, Garver, Josh Donaldson and Luis Arraez.

"You go through these things every season," Baldelli said of waves of injuries. "We saw this a couple days ago or yesterday and we're seeing it again today. It's something that in baseball and in sports and in life, you're going to have tough times. We have the kind of group that bands together and gets through things well."

With more than half of the starting lineup sidelined, rallying on Friday was tough as Duffy — who like Odorizzi was facing the same opponent for the third start in a row — beat the Twins for a second consecutive time.

The Royals, 4-0 at home vs. the Twins this season, aren't the pushovers they were in 2019, so it didn't help when Odorizzi forgot the GPS for home plate in the first inning.

Odorizzi did know where his bed was, and he was headed for it as soon as he was done with interviews. But first, he had to get on his feet. So he turned to Twins director of baseball communications Dustin Morse.

"Can you help me out of this chair?" Odorizzi said.