The Twins’ brief return to .500 didn’t last long.
A night after getting back to even for the first time since early April, Minnesota was shut out 4-0 by the Royals on Wednesday, with old friend Randy Dobnak doing the damage from the other side. Dobnak, facing the Twins for the first time in his six big-league seasons, turned in seven quiet innings and kept Minnesota from ever finding a rhythm.
Joe Ryan got the ball for the Twins and looked sharp at first, striking out two in a clean first inning. That was encouraging after his disastrous start in Cleveland, where he allowed six home runs, and after the team had already pushed this outing back twice because of fatigue and mechanical issues. But the good feelings faded fast.
Kansas City opened the second with back-to-back singles and had runners on first and third with nobody out. Ryan escaped that jam by getting weak contact three times in a row, but the Royals finally broke through in the third when Tyler Tolbert led off with a solo homer for a 1-0 lead.
The Royals kept stacking runs from there. In the fourth, Salvador Perez opened the inning with a triple - yes, a triple - after Luke Keaschall misplayed the ball, and Nick Loftin followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Ryan had already allowed the hard contact, and this time he couldn’t work out of it.
Kansas City put the game away in the fifth. Carter Jensen doubled, and later in the inning Jac Caglianone delivered a two-out RBI single to push the lead to 4-0.
Dobnak, meanwhile, had the Twins chasing soft contact all night. Minnesota managed only five baserunners over those seven innings, and even the balls hit hard tended to find gloves. The Royals bullpen finished the job cleanly, with Daniel Lynch IV and Steven Cruz each tossing a scoreless inning to lock down the shutout.
There was at least one encouraging development for Minnesota. Kendry Rojas came out of the bullpen and threw three scoreless innings, striking out four and walking two. That work gave the rest of the bullpen a breather, and Rojas continues to settle in nicely at the major-league level.
Before the game, the Twins also made a roster move that could loom larger than the box score. Byron Buxton went on the injured list with a hip injury, the same hip that has already sidelined him earlier this season. Tristan Gray was called up to take his spot for now, and no timeline has been given for Buxton’s return.
The series wraps up Thursday at 12:40 PM CT, with Bailey Ober set to start for the Twins against Royals sophomore southpaw Noah Cameron.
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