The Twins' tenuous hold on a turnaround took a tumble Friday, thanks to familiar troubles.
After building a four-game win streak – including a series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, the worst team in the American League — the Twins had a chance to regain an inch of extensive ground against AL Central rival Kansas City. But pitching woes and hitting slumps set the Twins back 8-3 in front of an announced crowd of 14,260 at Target Field.
At 20-30, the Twins are 10 games back in the division. The Royals improved to 24-25 and are five games back in the middle of the standings.
The Twins left eight on base, going just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. They mustered just six hits compared with Kansas City's 13. The Royals were 6-for-9 in their clutch-hitting situations.
Both starting pitchers started strong, with Kansas City's Kris Bubic allowing just four hits in his six innings. The only run he allowed came on Mitch Garver's second-deck home run in the fourth inning to break the 0-0 deadlock.
Twins starter Randy Dobnak, pitching in place of injured Kenta Maeda, started similarly strong. He gave up just a hit apiece in the first two innings before recording 1-2-3 innings in the third and fourth with just 18 pitches. But in the fifth, he surrendered a two-out walk and three consecutive hits as the Royals took a 3-1 lead.
"I hate walking people. It's almost like every time I walk someone, something bad's going to happen," Dobnak said. "I wasn't thinking about that on the mound, obviously, but the next pitch was a hard ground ball to right-center field, and I was like, 'There's no way this guy's going to score,' right?"
Hunter Dozier came home on Michael A. Taylor's double. Garver appeared to be in prime position to catch the ball and tag Dozier out, but it popped out of his glove as Dozier flew past the catcher.
