Tuesday night was more of the Kansas City Royals’ bad luck against the Minnesota Twins. Simeon Woods Richardson, the Twins starter, won his second game of 2024 after dominating the Royals over the course of five innings.
At Target Field, he gave up three hits and two runs in the Twins’ 4-2 victory. Matt Quatraro, manager of the Royals, remarked, “He threw a lot of sliders, and it didn’t seem like we were picking it up.” “We didn’t do much with it; it’s a high release and a unique pitch perspective for the slider.”
It was the Royals’ (34-22) third straight loss. KC has now suffered five straight losses against the Twins. Minnesota took early advantage of Cole Ragans, the Royals’ starter. He struggled throughout the game and gave up two runs in the opening inning.
In the Ragans’ outing on Tuesday, the Twins worked deep counts and got nine hits. In five innings, the Ragans gave up three earned runs and lost the game overall. “I just wasn’t getting ahead in the beginning,” Ragans stated. “I made a mistake, and they held me accountable.” Jose Miranda, a third-baseman for the Twins, scored two runs. After hitting a home run in the first game of the series, he persisted in annoying the Royals pitchers.
The Royals managed to score only one run in one inning. In the fifth inning, outfielders Kyle Isbel and Garrett Hampson both had RBIs. In the meantime, Twins infielder Edouard Julien extended the lead in the eighth inning to 4-2 with an RBI single. Twins closer Jhoan Duran recorded his eighth save in the ninth inning by working around two hits.
Dairon Blanco, a pinch runner for the Royals, was caught stealing at second base, and Duran ended the game by retiring Nick Loftin and MJ Melendez. After taking the first two games of the four-game series, Minnesota moved to 30-24. Hunter Renfroe, an outfielder for the Royals, remarked, “We are playing some really good ball.” “We didn’t play to our best today due to a little skid here.”