Twins light off fireworks on Greinke as Royals lose 9-3

On the Fourth of July, the Royals and Zack Greinke were lit up by the likes of the Minnesota Twins in a 9-3 loss. The defeat puts Kansas City at 1-8 against the Twins in 2023.

It didn’t take long for the firework festivities to begin at Target Field on Tuesday afternoon. In the bottom of the first, Minnesota opened the scoring with a Max Kepler RBI-single.

Two innings later, Kepler did even more damage with a two-out, 3-2, three-run bomb to left-center field.

The Royals, however, responded in the top of the fourth with a two-run shot off the bat of Bobby Witt Jr. The ball traveled 432 feet from home plate to cut the deficit in half.

Unfortunately, that’s about as good as it got on the holiday for Kansas City. Minnesota tacked on a total of six runs off Greinke in 5 ¹⁄₃ innings of work. Even worse, Greinke left with the trainer in the top of the sixth.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Twins twisted the knife with a three-run frame against Nick Wittgren.

Kansas City managed to tack on a run in the ninth thanks to a sacrifice fly from Nick Pratto, who’s driven in three runs in the last two games.

The Royals, 25-61, will try and avoid a sweep tomorrow night. Alec Marsh goes for his first major league win against Pablo Lopez. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. CT.