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 Right-hander Chris Young pitched 6 1/3 innings of one-hit ball,
allowing his only hit to the last batter he faced, as the Royals won
2-0 over the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
After getting Twins first baseman Joe Mauer to fly out to center to
start the seventh, Young allowed a triple to third baseman Trevor
Plouffe, ending his no-hit bid. The ball bounced high off the wall
in right field, missing a home run by inches.
Royals manager Ned Yost immediately went to his bullpen, calling on
left-hander Franklin Morales and righty Kelvin Herrera. Each got his
man to ground out, preserving the win for Young, who allowed just
the one hit and three walks while striking out two.
Right-hander Wade Davis pitched a perfect eighth inning before
closer Greg Holland worked around a two-out walk in the ninth for
his 11th save.
For Young, it was the second time this season he had gone at least
five innings without allowing a hit. It was the eighth time in his
career he allowed just one hit through six innings and the first
since 2011 when Young pitched for the New York Mets.
"Fastball command; I was able to elevate when I wanted to," Young
said. "I think for most pitchers, fastball command is paramount.
Certainly, tonight it was better than my last couple of starts."
Young allowed a combined 10 runs in his last two starts but allowed
no runs in an outing for the fourth time this season. Tuesday marked
his seventh start.
"The results were probably better than the way I pitched," Young
said. "The guys made some great plays behind me. They hit a few
balls hard and probably could have gotten on the board a lot sooner
than they did."
The win moved Kansas City one game ahead of the Twins for first
place in the American League Central. The Royals will go for a
three-game series sweep here on Wednesday.
"It's hard to say how fragile our confidence level could be when you
go through a stretch of seven or eight games where we haven't played
as well as we had during May," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "I
think we have a lot of confident guys in there. We still have the
guys that can lead. I'm not overly concerned about confidence being
something that's an issue right now."
Kansas City took an early lead, scoring a run off Twins starter
Trevor May just five pitches into the game. A leadoff double by
shortstop Alcides Escobar was followed by an RBI single by third
baseman Mike Moustakas for a quick 1-0 lead.
May would go on to scatter seven hits over six innings of work,
walking three and striking out five, dropping to 4-4 on the year.
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Minnesota got little going until the sixth inning, when Young walked
center fielder Aaron Hicks and second baseman Brian Dozier with two
outs, bring right fielder Torii Hunter to the plate. Hunter stung
the ball, but right at Royals left fielder Alex Gordon to end the
threat.
With the Royals' outstanding bullpen waiting in a one-run game, Yost
made the decision to pull Young even though he had thrown just 83
pitches and allowed the one hit.
"Because he labored in the sixth, I got Morales and Herrera ready,"
Yost said. "Everything changed when Plouffe hit the ball an inch
from going out of the ballpark and had a triple."
Perez homered in the ninth inning to give Holland some breathing
room. It was his ninth homer of the season.
Minnesota was shut out for the fifth time this season and dropped to
3-6 in the month of June and 1-4 on its current six-game homestand,
which ends on Wednesday. It was the first time since May 24, 2013,
the Twins were held to just a single hit.
"Obviously, any time you aren't doing well as an offense and you're
losing games, you're going to be frustrated," Plouffe said. "That's
the No. 1 thing for us. We want to win series, and we haven't put
ourselves in position to do that lately -- mainly because of our
offense."
NOTES: The Royals will decide Wednesday whether C Erik Kratz will
rejoin the active roster in place of C Drew Butera. Kratz has been
on the 15-day disabled list since May with a torn plantar fascia.
Whoever is not chosen must either be traded or designated for
assignment. ... Twins OF Eddie Rosario was placed on paternity leave
following the game. He is expected to miss just one game. ... Twins
SS Jorge Polanco was recalled from Double-A Chattanooga to take
Rosario's roster spot. ... Twins RHP Ervin Santana threw another
bullpen session Tuesday as he continues to serve an 80-game
suspension for the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Santana
should return to the Twins around July 4. ... The Royals and Twins
will play the finale of the three-game series Wednesday at Target
Field. Kansas City RHP Edinson Volquez (4-4, 3.26 ERA) will oppose
Minnesota RHP Kyle Gibson (4-3, 3.00 ERA).
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