Twins use power, craftiness to stop Royals 4-2

There were runners on first and third in the bottom of the seventh inning Sunday. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sent in newly acquired Ildemaro Vargas to third as a pinch runner for Alex Avila with Jorge Polanco coming to bat.

On a 1-1 pitch, Polanco squared around to bunt. The ball dropped into the grass and Vargas took off for home and scored.

A safety squeeze. Anyone have that on their bingo card?

It doubled the Twins' lead in a 4-2 victory over a stubborn Royals team. Kansas City clubbed home runs in the first and second innings off Randy Dobnak, but the Twins scrambled back and took the lead for good on Max Kepler's two-run homer in the fifth.

Then Baldelli reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out the Twins' first successful squeeze bunt since June 2, 2019, against Tampa Bay. Because that's what it takes to beat the Royals these days.

"There were a lot of different things going on," Baldelli said.

These victories aren't coming easy, especially against a Royals team that lost 103 games in 2019. The Twins went 14-5 vs. Kansas City a year ago, but eight of those games were decided by one run. So the Royals have battled the Twins harder than the overall record suggests.

Now with an improved bullpen and a couple of developing position players, the Royals are even tougher to crack. Last weekend, the Twins were swept in three games at Kansas City.

It took one of the best defensive games of the season and 3⅓ innings of scoreless relief to hold the Royals off. When Sergio Romo struck out Jorge Soler looking for the final out, his roar could be heard to First Avenue.

The Royals apparently didn't like Romo's antics, staring at him from their dugout for several moments after the game.

"I'm not sure specifically what they were upset about," Baldelli said, "but I think also it did seem like they were upset about something. All that being said, in baseball with no fans in the stands and not a lot of — our audio/visual people do a fantastic job but it's not the same type of noise that you're used to — it doesn't really drown anything out so anything that is said on the field on either side, you generally hear it pretty clearly."

Hunter Dozier blasted a two-out homer off Dobnak in the first inning and Alex Gordon, swinging on a 3-0 fastball, did the same in the second. Dobnak responded by retiring the next 11 batters.

The Twins made it 2-1 in the third inning by scoring without a hit: Alex Avila walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, went to third on a balk and scored on a Polanco groundout. Avila also drew a leadoff walk two innings later, then trotted home when Kepler broke an 0-for-11 skid with a home run to right off Brady Singer.

Dobnak's run ended with one out in the sixth when he gave up a single and a walk. Tyler Clippard entered to face Dozier, who lined a 3-2 pitch to left.

Eddie Rosario sprinted in and made a falling catch. Since the runners were off with the pitch, Rosario spun to his feet and threw to Luis Arraez at second to complete the double play. The play had a catch probability of 25%.

"When he hit the ball, I thought it was maybe a little too weak, not going to reach Rosario," Dobnak said. "But he came up and made a nice play and a nice double play to get out of that inning and keep those guys out there on base."

It was one of three strong defensive plays by the Twins on Sunday. Third baseman Marwin Gonzalez stabbed Whit Merrifield's hot grounder to start the game, and Arraez barehanded Polanco's toss, turned, then fired to first to complete a flashy double play in the seventh.

"That's definitely nice to have as a starter," Dobnak said. "I haven't had much luck with that in my career as a pro or college."

That's what it takes to beat the Royals these days.