Royals fall to Twins in rain-shortened game, 6-2

In a shortened game that was called due to weather in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Royals dropped game one of three to the Twins, 6-2.

Kicking off the final series of Ned Yost’s career and the 2019 season, Kansas City held a special ceremony for the winningest-manager in franchise history prior to the first pitch.

At the conclusion of the festivities, Eric Skoglund took the bump for his sixth start of the season. Facing a Twins’ lineup with a handful of their regulars sitting on the bench to rest for the postseason, the lanky-left struggled mightily from the first batter on. Before he could record an out, Minnesota plated two runs on the first four batters. Able to elude the massive inning, Skoglund kept the deficit to two heading into the home half.

Similar to the Twins’ start, the Royals attempted to strike early off José Berríos. After a lead-off single by Whit Merrifield and a double from Hunter Dozier, Gordon put Kansas City on the board with an RBI-groundout. However, this is as close as the Royals got for the rest of the game.

In the top of the second, Royals-killer Miguel Sanó blasted a two-run shot to left center field, pushing the advantage to 4-1. Skoglund was chased in the ensuing frame after allowing two more to score on a home run from Ryan LaMarre. His final start of the season resulted in six runs on nine hits in three innings.

Kansas City tacked on a second run in the bottom of the fifth on a Jorge Soler sacrifice fly. It added to Soler’s career-high 113 RBIs. Tim Hill, Kevin McCarthy, Jake Newberry, and Kyle Zimmer all turned in scoreless outings.

Before the home half of the seventh, the rain came in and never went away. Making the decision to call it, the Royals dropped their 102nd game of 2019. Minnesota tallied its 100th win, the fourth team to reach that total this year.

Tomorrow, Kansas City will send Glenn Sparkman to the mound. The Twins have still yet to decide who to hand the ball to. First pitch is at 1:15 CT.