The Royals offense had plenty of opportunities early to take control of the game. Twins starter Jose Urena was all over the place, a leadoff walk and a single for the first two Royal hitters had runners on the corners, nobody down and the heart of the order coming up. Vinnie Pasquantino swung at a 3-1 pitch and hit a missile down the first base line, unfortunately it was right into the glove of first baseman Kody Clemens, who stepped on the first base bag ahead of Maikel Garcia.
Salvador Perez would walk on four pitches before Adam Frazier lined a single into right field to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.
In the 2nd inning, the Royals had back-to-back walks to start the inning, before Kyle Isbel bunted them to second and third. With one out, Mike Yastrzemski hit a rocket right to the second baseman, another bad luck out for the Royals. Maikel Garcia would battle into a 3-2 count but got buckled on a slider down the middle to end the inning looking.
Ryan Bergert was really good again for the Royals in his second start with the team, he went 5 2/3 innings again, allowing two runs. Those runs came after a leadoff walk in the third, followed by a 2-run homer by former Royals minor leaguer, Ryan Fitzgerald. It was the first hit and homer of his MLB career. On the day, Bergert’s final line had 4 hits and 8 strikeouts.
With two outs in the top of the 7th, Maikel Garcia hit a single, Pasquantino then hit a go-ahead 2 run dinger, his 20th on the year. Royals lead 3-2.
Angel Zerpa looked good in his inning and a third of work. Lucas Erceg got the 8th inning, who got a ground out to second to start the inning. The next batter, Austin Martin flared one into left field, John Rave tried to make a sliding catch, but the ball bounced by him, rolling all the way to the wall. An untimely misplay played the tying run’s single into a triple. Erceg would get a shallow flyout to left for the second out, but Ryan Jeffers would flare a 2-out single into left to tie the game at 3.
In the top of the 9th, the Royals would get a two out double from Garcia, Pasquantino would be intentionally walked, and Perez would be hit by a pitch. Adam Frazier, who was 4-4 on the day, with 4 singles, including an RBI, would flyout to the wall in right field to end the inning.
John Schreiber would work a quick 1-2-3 9th inning. In the 10th, Jonathan India would ground out to shortstop, Rave would strike out swinging, Nick Loftin would pinch hit for Luke Maile, and walk on 4 pitches, but Isbel would pop out to short to end the inning. Through 10 innings, the Royals were 1-12 with runners in scoring position.
Taylor Clarke would get the bottom of the 10th, striking out two batters, and getting a flyout to the wall in left field, a ball Rave lost in the sun, but found and ran down just in time.
The Royals had the top of the order up in the 11th inning, Yastrzemski would weakly flyout to left, Garcia would walk, Pasquantino would pop out and Perez would strike out. 1-15 with RISP, and the Royals would never move the free base runner off second base in their two attempts.
In the bottom of the 11th, Carlos Estevez would come into face the heart of the Twins order. Kody Clemens was intentionally walked to start the inning to allow right vs right matchups, Estevez would get a lineout to center, Austin Martin the runner on second, would try and tag up, but stumble and get thrown out at third, the Twins challenged, but the call was confirmed. But Luke Keaschall would bail him out on a walk off two run homer.
The Royals lose 5-3 and simply gave the game away. It’s the second walk off homer Estevez has surrendered post All-Star Break. The Royals are 58-60 on the season and finish the road trip 4-5. They start a 10 game homestand tomorrow against the Nationals.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com ’
