Royals win in the most unpredictable fashion

Up until the final plate appearance, this contest was about as uneventful as a game can get. Ages ago, in the top of third inning, the Twins dinked together a few hits that resulted in a Miguel Sano RBI single to give the Twins a 1-0 lead (not 2-0 thanks to the golden arm of Alex Gordon).

Other than one inning, Danny Duffy turned in a second straight quality start, laboring through six innings of one-run ball, working around four walks.

Another Kyle Gibson/Royals matchup, another Royals offensive flop. Gibson was on point, throwing seven scoreless frames, striking out eight and walking only one. The Royals didn’t put many rallies together and when they did their RISP blues would shut them down.

Addison Reed continued doing favors for the Royals, allowing two hits, a hit by pitch, and a bases loaded walk to Jorge Soler in the eighth inning to knot the game at one. This would be the last of any action for a while though, sending the game into a seamlessly never-ending extra innings pit.

The star of the night was the recently called up Scott Barlow. He relieved scoreless outings from Kevin McCarthy, Brian Flynn, Kelvin Herrera, and Jason Adam. Barlow tallied up four scoreless and hitless innings, striking out five batters in a row somewhere in the middle of that outing.

After quiet efforts to win the game inning by inning, Alcides Escobar came up with two down in the bottom of the fourteenth. He swung hard at a pitch dead-red, crushing the baseball over the left field fence for his second home run of the year (and the first walkoff home run of his career). Royals win 2-1.

The Royals finish up the series tomorrow, sending Brad Keller to the hill for his first career major league start. Expect a roster move tomorrow with expected piggyback mate Scott Barlow throwing 47 pitches tonight.