After managing just three hits through eight innings, the Minnesota Twins erupted for four runs in the ninth, bringing the tying run aboard before ultimately falling 6-5 to the Kansas City Royals at Target Field.
Sunday marked the Twins’ 17th game in 17 days, a stretch manager Derek Shelton sounded relieved was finally coming to an end.
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“It seems like we’ve been playing longer than 17 days,” Shelton said before the game, via TwinsTV. “We’re going to be happy to get to the end of the stretch.”
Connor Prielipp turned in another encouraging outing despite taking the loss, allowing two runs over 4 1/3 innings while striking out seven on 76 pitches. Shelton was happy with the production he received from the left-hander, especially knowing he could go deeper into the bullpen with the off day tomorrow.
“We knew going into today that it was going to be a shorter outing,” Shelton said postgame, via TwinsTV. “We were probably between 75 and 80.”
The game was tied 1-1 when Prielipp exited, then the Royals finally erupted for four runs, capped off by Starling Marte‘s three-run blast to dead center off Andrew Morris. This marked the veteran’s first home run since joining the Royals.
Kansas City would add another insurance run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Carter Jensen. It was a familiar formula for Kansas City, which entered the day leading Major League Baseball in sacrifice flies. This seemingly insignificant run would prove monumental just a few innings later.
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Later on in the ninth, Josh Bell launched the 199th home run of his career with a three-run shot that immediately changed the energy inside Target Field.
The Twins rallied behind him. Victor Caratini lined an RBI single that deflected off reliever Lucas Erceg‘s glove to make it a one-run game, and pinch-hitter Tristan Gray followed with another base hit to bring the tying run aboard.
But despite all the momentum of a crowd hoping to witness Minnesota’s first walk-off of 2026, there would be no happy ending as Brooks Lee ultimately flew out to the warning track to end it. Still, Shelton appreciated the way his club responded after spending most of the afternoon chasing the game.
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“We continue to have good at-bats,” Shelton told reporters, via TwinsTV. “It was a situation where our guys continued to go.”
The Twins can finally put this grueling 17-game stretch behind them and get an off day to shift the focus to Detroit, where they’ll send Taj Bradley to the mound for Tuesday’s opener. The Tigers counter with Troy Melton.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’
