Twins come up empty time and again with runners on base in 2-0 loss to Royals

Royce Lewis fouled a pitch directly off his left kneecap during his final at-bat of the night Saturday, and hobbled around for a few minutes waiting for the throbbing to subside.

And that wasn’t even the most painful part of Lewis’ night.

Four times the Twins third baseman batted with runners in scoring position, and four times he ended the inning without a run. The Twins’ eighth shutout loss of the season wasn’t entirely Lewis’ fault, of course — the lineup as a whole went 0-for-10 when given those scoring opportunities — but his was the most notable fizzle among many in the Twins’ 2-0 loss to Kansas City at Target Field.

“Yeah, it’ll frustrate you a little bit. We did a heck of a job finding our way on, especially early on in the game,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And then we didn’t get any hits. The game doesn’t look too much different than what we did the last couple of days, except the last few days when we got the guys on, someone came up and whacked a good one or hit one in the gap.”

The defeat ended the Twins’ modest three-game winning streak, and marked the Royals’ first shutout in Target Field since they limited the Twins to one hit on June 9, 2015.

Lewis’ 0-for-4 included a first-inning strikeout with Austin Martin on third base; a 6-4-3 double play with Martin on third again; a routine fly out to left with Alan Roden on second base in the fifth; and that seventh-inning strikeout that made him wince, it coming with Ryan Jeffers on second.

“It hit him right on the knee. Yeah, it hurts. It hurts, and guys are generally pretty good about getting crushed and within 30 seconds, they’ll get right back in the box and be ready to go,” Baldelli said. “He said he was ready to go. “

In coming up empty, the Twins wasted the most positive development of the night — Bailey Ober’s start, despite ending in a loss. The righthander, making only his second start since coming off the injured list and his first at home since June 23, gave up four hits over six innings, and only one run.